


New Danganronpa V3R: Graduation

by aroseandapen, ImpyTricky (rychuu)



Series: Danganronpa V3R [1]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Twins, Ask to Tag anything we happened to miss, Canon Rewrite, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Major Original Character(s), Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, POV Original Character, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27738262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aroseandapen/pseuds/aroseandapen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rychuu/pseuds/ImpyTricky
Summary: Kurochi Ouma is known as the Ultimate Cryptographer. Suddenly, he finds himself and his younger twin brother, Kokichi Ouma, trapped in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles. With fifteen other students and strange circumstances, Kurochi is sure that they had stumbled into a school of absolute hell.And when hell came, it scorched him from the inside out.
Series: Danganronpa V3R [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1002297
Comments: 49
Kudos: 82





	1. Prologue, Chapter 1: Fragmentations

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone!
> 
> So, just a few clarifications on somethings before you continue on to read!
> 
> A bit of a disclaimer: We've changed certain aspects of characters to better suit the story, or further developed than what they got in canon. We wanted to give the love and respect the characters truly deserved. 
> 
> We are also stubbornly keeping this rewrite ship-free, but there will probably be a fair amount of ship bait. Please don't expect any endgame shipping, as there won't be any.

_A glimmer._ There was a glimmer of light. Soft and dim, yet there wasn’t any warmth in this light.

Cold. Everything that he was–the glimmer, his form, his being–everything, were nothing more than flickering fragments of light and regret. That was all his existence amounted to. A useless form without shape or purpose.

As his mind flickered to life, he remembered a face. One not quite his own, like a reflection of a life he never had. Dark hair that shimmered purple, eyes the color of lilac, and skin a pale, sickly ivory that contrasted against the dark gray surrounding him. There was no semblance of color in the face that mirrored his own, nothing to indicate that the mirror image he was staring at was even alive. Even the smile seemed forced.

Was he alive? Apparently yes, as his eyes blinked and welled with tears.

Why was he crying?

He remembered his own form moving. With purpose, with reason, now laying beside the boy with lilac eyes. The other’s lips parted and moved, but he could only remember fragments of the words he said.

One thing, one thing among the broken words managed to stick out to him and his shapeless form, loud and clear.

_“Could you at least pretend to forgive me?”_

Everything else faded into the darkness. Did he even respond? There was a warm sensation in his hand. It felt foreign, outside of himself, but the echoes were fading. The light flickered, and the memory flickered with it. His mind felt like shattered glass, and he was trying to pick up the pieces to paint a clear picture.

And then, there was nothing. No light, no sound. No form, no voice, no memory. There was nothing to his existence. Where was he? What was he? _Who_ was he?

Another glimmer of light appeared before him. This one was stronger, warm and bright and beckoning. As he moved closer, the fog in his mind started to lift, and he came to the realization that the light he saw was his very existence.

He extended out a hand, a hand that belonged to no one, to take a hold of the life he once held.

As the darkness faded and light burst all around him, he remembered who he was. Everything surged through him all at once, and the light grew so bright in his hands that it had started to blind him.

Among the chaos of his being, he heard a voice. A voice, calling out to him. A voice he started to move towards, through thick air, as if the gravity of the earth wanted to pull him under.

No, not this time. With the force of sheer willpower, he ran towards the voice. There was a loud, mechanical hum coming from behind him, something that made him cry out with terror and desperately try to run faster. As he did, a piece of his light broke off and flickered away. Memories, a fragment of his memories were gone, and as the void swallowed the light whole, he couldn’t even remember what he was running from–and whatever it was, it roared behind him, just as ear piercing as it was mechanical.

Soon, the hum and roar died down, and the voice grew louder. Louder, louder, until it sounded like the voice was right in front of him. When he reached out again, he was consumed by darkness and felt a barrier in between himself and the other. There was no light, no matter how many times he blinked. Now he was confined in a small space with nowhere to go.

"Hello?"

There was a voice just outside of his prison.

 _“_ Is anyone there…?”

He needed to get out.

 _“_ Hello…?”

_He needed to get out._

The thought drew out a soft gasp from his lungs, and he started struggling. As he struggled and pushed, the door of the locker he was trapped in flew open, and with a loud yelp, he stumbled out and fell to the ground.

 _“_ K-Kurochi!”

Dazed, Kurochi didn’t immediately answer the other, even as he rushed to his side. He groaned, shaking his head as if that would expel the fog that crept up from the impact. Had he hit his head that hard on the ground? He had thought he’d fallen onto his arms, his elbows surely scraped from his tumble, but his head was _throbbing._

 _“Rochi–”_ Suddenly, there was a hand on Kurochi’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Rochi? Are you hurt?”

Looking up at the other, Kurochi’s eyes met with a face that mirrored his own. Lilac eyes, messy dark hair that glimmered purple in the light, pale skin. Twin. His identical, baby twin brother.

 _“_ Ah, Kokichi!” A strong sense of relief settled in his chest. Maybe it wasn’t right to feel relieved to find that his brother was in this situation with him, but he couldn’t help it. The thought that he might’ve been alone in this unfamiliar place for unknown reasons was a daunting prospect.

Upon Kokichi’s question, Kurochi took stock of himself. Aside from the tumble out of the locker and a splitting headache, he couldn’t identify anything else wrong with him. He gave his brother a sheepish smile. “No, I’m good. I’m okay. What about you? Are you hurt or anything?”

"No, I'm fine..." Kokichi said, though soon, he was smiling too. "Well... aside from the headache I have from falling on my face." It was a small joke, something to help ease the tension and that made Kurochi snicker. Well, that put them in the same boat.

The brief moment of cheer vanished, however, once Kurochi looked around the room. “Where are we? A classroom? We’re in some school?” His mouth twisted in a frown. “… How did we end up here?”

"Beats me… What's with this place?" Kokichi looked at the windows, frowning. "Why is there barbed wire on the windows? Are we... trapped here?"

Trapped... his chest tightened at the thought. Brought to this place only to be locked inside. He had the urge to run to the classroom door to see if it would open, but he stomped it down. As much as he wanted to, they couldn’t act rashly. Not before they knew just what kind of situation they were in.

Kokichi then turned to him, his eyes alert and focused. "Kurochi, what's the last thing you remember? Do you remember anything?"

 _“_ I.... it’s really fuzzy.” Kurochi placed a hand to the side of his head, wracking his brain. “I was...” He heard a dull roaring in his ears, drowning out the sound of his own voice as he mumbled the memory as it came to him. “… Walking. I was walking and someone... they grabbed me and pulled me into this car.” Kurochi wrapped his arms around himself. “I-I don’t remember much else. I think I had a weird dream, though.”

 _“_ Weird dream, huh?” Kokichi brought a curled fist to his lips, lost in thought. “Probably from whatever they used on us to knock us out. I remember being taken, too. I was right behind you...” Kokichi’s brows furrowed. “After they pulled you into the car, they got me, too... I tried to call out for help, but no one seemed to give two shits about us at all." Kokichi gritted his teeth. "What a rotten world."

Taken right off the streets, and no one batted an eye. How depressing. Anything could’ve happened to them, and the world didn’t even care.

Kokichi stood, and offered a hand to him to help him up. "Well. We're just gonna have to play this by ear for now, right? There's nothing we can't do as long as we stick together." Kokichi smiled, but Kurochi knew it was forced. "Besides, sitting here's not gonna do us any good. We need to look for an exit."

Kurochi did his best to return Kokichi’s smile as he took his hand, and hoisted himself onto his own two feet. “Yeah, first thing’s first. Let’s see what we can find.”

"Yeah. Stay close, okay?" Kokichi’s hand was shaking, so subtly that you wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking at it. Kurochi could tell he was nervous, scared even, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

He didn’t dare call him out on it, though, and only forced out a smile he could only hope was reassuring. “Right.”

As he followed after his brother on his own shaky legs, Kurochi refused to let go of his brother’s hand just as much as Kokichi wouldn’t release his. It was a childish habit they had, one they never truly outgrew, but it was comforting to them both.

"This is a really run-down school. Like, _really_ run down...” Kokichi muttered. “Can you think of any abandoned schools in Japan? I can't think of any."

Kurochi took a good look at their surroundings. He tried to think about any abandoned schools in Japan that they might be in, but none came to mind. “No... I can’t either.” His frown deepened. “Why would we be brought to a school? And just... left in the lockers like that?”

"Hmm..." Kokichi's own frown deepened as well as he glanced around. "I don't know. I think... maybe they wanted us to escape the classroom. I don't know why, but it doesn't make sense otherwise."

 _“_ But, why…?”

The question was rhetorical, and Kokichi didn’t bother to try to answer it. They both were in the dark as much as the other, unaware of their situation and surroundings. It was a terrifying place to be in.

 _“_ Well, if this is a school, then there should be an entrance.” Kurochi broke the silence, hoping to dispel the tension. “It can’t be too hard to find...”

At the mention of the exit, Kokichi's grip on his hand tightened. "... Yeah. There's got to be an entrance around here. Look for an exit–or, maybe stairs that could lead towards one."

Things fell silent between them as they continued, the sounds of their footsteps echoing down the empty hallways. The hallways of a school, abandoned with barbed wire over the windows. The two of them stuffed into lockers, their memories of how they got there fuzzy. And yet the doors had been unlocked and they left the classroom easily.

Why? Why was all of this happening? Why were they here?

The only thing that kept Kurochi from falling into panic was perhaps Kokichi’s hand holding his, tight and warm, helping him to continue moving forward. “If we just keep following the walls, we’ll find an exit eventually. Shouldn’t be too hard,” he said, looking over his shoulder, half-expecting someone to be there. The thought made him shudder–he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Hmm, that's a good idea actually," Kokichi turned around to glance at his brother with a smile. "Let's follow the walls with windows. That should do it, right?" Kokichi had said that just as they turned the corner, and the sight beyond it alone made them both freeze with terror. There was a giant machine, facing away from them. It looked like some kind of monster, a robot right out of a sci-fi movie.

Fear petrified him, and Kurochi sucked in a quiet breath. His grip on his brother’s hand tightened, teeth gritted hard to keep himself from making a sound and alert the robot to their presence. He couldn’t breathe, the air freezing solid in his lungs. Kokichi began to move backwards. Kurochi mirrored the steps, each one shaking and difficult. Not even two steps in and Kurochi’s heel got caught on some debris, and he tripped with a loud yelp.

He didn’t fall, thanks to Kokichi’s grip on him, but that was only a small blessing when Kurochi realized the monster was turning around.

"Hey! There you are, you bastards!" A feminine voice came from the robot. “I’ve been looking all over for you!”

 _“_ Run,” Kokichi breathed, but Kurochi couldn’t respond. He was too petrified, shaking and eyes wide. Though before another moment passed, Kokichi grabbed his wrist and started sprinting in the opposite direction. “Rochi, _run!”_

"H-hey, wait...! Don’t run away, you’re only going to make this more difficult than it has to be!"

All Kurochi heard after that was a loud, mechanical roar. Terror raced through his mind as he sprinted alongside his brother, desperate to not drag him down with how tight Kokichi’s grip was on his wrist. It really was like something straight out of a horror sci-fi movie, like a piece of a fictional world broke off and into reality.

A huge, terrifying machine, following close behind them. Kurochi nearly stumbled when they found and rushed down the stairs, and his heart froze in fear. Somehow he kept his footing, and didn’t bring both him and his brother crashing down to their deaths on the stairway.

The floor they reached was overgrown with plants and grass, like some place that had been abandoned for a long time. There was little time to ponder that, however–he hoped that the _thing_ chasing them couldn’t run down the stairs after them, but he didn’t want to test their luck. “D… doors,” he gasped out, spotting a pair of them at the end of one of the turns. Someplace for them to duck into, and hopefully the big machine couldn’t follow them in.

Kokichi’s eyes fell on them, and they both sprinted towards them. Soon, they threw the doors open, and they were in a room that looked like some sort of gymnasium. Even stranger still, was that the gymnasium was full of other breathless, terrified-looking students.

When they all turned to face them, it was clear–they were all terrified and lost, out of breath and even wheezing from exertion. With so many people, all of them now staring at him and his brother, Kurochi felt like he was going to be sick.

So many people, so many students, all trapped with the horrifying realization that all of their lives were in grave danger.

 _“_ Ohhh… More people have arrived.” A brown girl with white hair exclaimed.

Kokichi turned to her and blinked. “More… people?” Kokichi and Kurochi glanced around, frowning at the other people they saw in the gym.

Kurochi watched them as they stared at the twins, or muttered to one another so quietly that he couldn’t hear what they were saying.

 _“_ Hey… what’s going on here?” Kokichi asked, and Kurochi felt Kokichi’s grip on his hand tightened.

Something felt off. Kurochi knew, something felt so _off,_ so familiar about these faces, about this situation, about everything that had been happening–

 _“_ Were you chased by those monsters?” A girl with short red hair asked, trembling and whimpering as she wiped stray tears from her eyes. “Th-they... they chased us here, too…”

 _“_ What… _are_ they?” A deep voice cut through the crowd, and Kurochi took a moment to realize it was the shortest student who had spoken, one that clearly had dwarfism from how small he was. “What do they want with us?”

Kokichi turned his head towards the doors he and Kurochi had entered through, brows furrowed. Much to Kurochi’s dismay, Kokichi withdrew his hand from his wrist and took a step forward.

 _“_ H-hey! What do you think you’re doing?!” A feminine, powerful voice called out to him, and Kokichi turned to the girl with long black hair that was tied up in some sort of twin braids.

Glancing her over, Kokichi only frowned. “Checking things out, those monsters might be nearby–”

 _“_ You can’t!” She interrupted. “It’s too dangerous!”

The assertion that it was too dangerous to go out and check sent a chill down Kurochi’s spine. He shifted uneasily. “Maybe we should stay here for now,” Kurochi said, eyes darting between his brother and the doors they’d come through. If nothing else, just to give the monster a chance to move off, since they evidently inclined on coming into the gym. He didn’t want Kokichi to go out and get hurt if they’d found a safe place to hide.

 _“_ W-wait, wait! Hold on!” one of the girls, the one with blonde hair and pink eyes, spoke up, her voice cutting across the room. “Who even are you guys? Why am I here–?”

 _“_ There’s seventeen of us.”

 _“_ What?” The girl turned her purple eyes on who’d spoken, a guy with green hair standing with his arms crossed as he surveyed the room. Which was right; Kurochi didn’t understand what that had to do with the very valid question of who the rest of them were, and why they were here. Not just in the gym, although he didn’t understand how the monsters could’ve chased them all into one place, but the school itself.

Had they all been kidnapped? How? Who would’ve done this?

 _“_ There are seventeen of us, all students,” the guy said, as if repeating it clarified his intentions any.

 _“_ What’s that supposed to mean…?” Kurochi murmured, mostly to himself. Other than the fact that it was suspicious that students–teenagers all around the same age apparently–had all been kidnapped and rounded up in the same area.

 _“_ Seventeen…?” Kokichi repeated, and Kurochi glanced over to him to see him doing a quick head count. He blinked. “I guess there are...”

 _“_ We should wait and see if there are any others,” A guy with blue eyes and white hair muttered. His hat was hiding a good portion of his face. “There could be more…”

 _“_ I-if there is more, then maybe I should go look for them?” Another male voice called out, coming from the tallest one among them. Kurochi thought that he might be a bodybuilder, with how muscular he looked. “I can bring them here safely!”

 _“_ Like I said, it’s too dangerous!” The girl with braids cried out again. “We don’t even know if there are any others!”

Kokichi’s hand found its way back to his brothers at some point, and as the other students were debating about it, some kind of dread formed in his stomach.

Then, Kokichi spoke again, low and slowly, his voice slightly wavering with as much fear as Kurochi had ever seen his brother openly express. “I think… I think that we’re all there _is.”_

  
  



	2. Prologue, Chapter 2: Shattered Static

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After waking up in a locker and being chased by a mysterious mechanical monster, Kurochi and Kokichi Ouma find themselves in a gymnasium with fifteen other students.

Kokichi’s words had initially stunned them, but it didn’t last for very long. Soon after, another student–a male student with purple hair and a goatee–spoke up; “What? What do you mean by that?”

“I think he’s right,” the green haired student answered. “I also agree. If this is what I think it is, at any rate. It’s one person extra, but everything else fits.”

“’One person extra’?” Kurochi echoed. “What… what are you _talking_ about?”

Kokichi, on the other hand, glared at him. “Who even _are_ you?”

“Oh, right. I guess I didn’t give you my name. My name is Rantaro Amami.” After his introduction, Rantaro crossed his arms. “I’m sorry, but let’s leave it at that for now.”

“Huh?” The blonde girl who had spoken up before furrowed her brows at Rantaro, frowning with a bead of sweat rolling down her face. “Um… okay.”

Kurochi remained silent, his mind stuck on Rantaro’s name. Something about it felt familiar, and if how his brother mouthed the name was any indication, Kurochi had a feeling that he had met Rantaro somewhere before.

“Anyway,” the one with the goatee interrupted Kurochi’s train of thought. “What did you mean by ‘if this what you think it is’?”

“Do you know something?” A girl with red eyes and long brown hair tied back into two long ponytails spoke up from across the room, though her voice was cold and low. “What do you know?”

“What, you some kinda fuckin’ know-it-all?” Another blonde girl, who was louder and her tone venomous and sharp, called out. “If you know somethin’ spit it out!”

Before Rantaro was able to give an answer, however, unknown voices started echoing in the gymnasium.

“Okie dokie! Quiet, everyone!” The first voice was boyish, young and airy. It was almost whimsical and friendly, yet its sudden appearance didn’t put Kurochi on immediate high alert. “Shimmy down, shimmy down!”

“No, no, no. It’s ‘simmer down’,” A very familiar, feminine voice corrected. “You shouldn’t make a fool of yourself in front of the cast, you know!”

“Wait…” Kokichi breathed, his eyes widened in panic. “Isn’t that–?”

“Huh? Who’s that?” Another girl, the one with long blue hair, interrupted him. “Where are they?”

Those words were like a curse, a cue that manifested danger right before their very eyes. Kurochi wouldn’t even know where to begin, trying to process how the monster that chased him and his brother beforehand manifested in the gymnasium before them. It was joined by four others, all appearing so suddenly, without warning, from thin air. It was like magic–an insane, dark magic that he couldn’t comprehend.

As the seventeen students all cried out in horror in one way or another, five shrill voices echoed in a chorus; “Kyahahahahaha! Thanks for bearing with us!”

Several students cried out in horror again, Kurochi and Kokichi included, as they backed away from the monsters as best as they could.

“Damn it!” Kurochi heard a male student, the one with purple hair again, shout. There was a waver in his voice. “There are more monsters, we’re surrounded!”

Indeed, once Kurochi looked around and behind him and his brother, he saw that they were surrounded.

The mechanical monster with red paint moved, and the boyish voice they all heard before spoke up; “These aren’t monsters! They’re Exisals!”

“They’re highly mobile, bipedal weapons platforms.” The yellow so-called ‘Exisal’ chimed in. The voice it had was deeper, with an accent that Kurochi couldn’t quite place.

“W-weapons?!” Kurochi heard yet another student, a slightly effeminate boy wearing a hat.

The blue Exisal quickly drew his attention away from the student, as it moved with a loud, mechanical roar.

A mechanical roar…?

Kurochi groaned, feeling a headache taking form behind his brow. Suddenly, he realized those mechanical roars that came from the machines were all too familiar.

“Should we take these for a spin by killin’ one of ‘em?!” The voice that came from the blue Exisal was deep and loud, rough and jagged in the worst ways imaginable. “C’moooon, c’mooon! There’s an extra one, we gotta try ‘em out!”

Kurochi heard Kokichi choke on his own breath. “K… _kill?”_

“Kill us…?!” Kurochi repeated, wheezing. He took a step back, and dragged Kokichi with him. “No, no no _no_ – _!”_

The girl who had stopped Kokichi before screamed, and she started cowering away. “W-wait a minute! It wouldn’t be any f-fun picking on plain, good-for-nothing commoners!”

Commoners…?

Was that all they were?

The questions that bubbled up the surface of Kurochi’s mind stuck around, but most of them were too muffled to be at all coherent.

Was there something… wrong, about what that girl had said?

“You’re right!” The blue Exisal’s voice exclaimed, followed by a booming laughter. “We should at least think of an interesting way to kill you!” The machine stepped forward towards the girl threateningly. “Maybe I’ll pick ya up and squeeze ya ‘til your guts come gushing out, like toothpaste!”

The imagery was enough to make Kurochi feel sick and dizzy.

“Pl-please, please not like toothpaste!”

“Ooooh, what’s this about toothpaste?” The voice coming from the red Exisal sounded clueless, like a child interrupting an adult conversation. “I dunno, I think I like Gushers more than toothpaste. Cherry is my favorite flavor!”

“N-no!” The girl screamed again. “Not like G-Gushers, either!”

“ _Ugh_ … I just imagined it,” the feminine voice, coming from the Exisal with pink paint, sounded as nauseated as Kurochi felt. “I can’t handle gore…”

“Then how about we start peelin’ off their limbs from their bodies?” The yellow Exisal turned to its comrades, raising up an arm. “One by one? Like string cheese?”

The girl gagged. “P-please, not like string cheese! That’s even worse!”

“Wait!” The red Exisal called out. “We can’t kill them with the Exisals! According to the schedule, the Exisals aren’t even supposed to appear until way later!”

The yellow Exisal turned to the red one. “But… we’re in the Exisals right now.”

“... Oh! So we are!”

“Oh no, we messed up!” The feminine voice stammered. “We’re not supposed to be in the Exisals at this point… Father’s going to be mad at us again!”

The blue Exisal slammed an arm onto the ground, and made another loud, mechanical roar. “I told ya we shoulda read the script! We keep forgettin’ our shit, every single time!”

The voice that came from the yellow Exisal scoffed. “... No, ya didn’t. And you never do, either.”

It was all too much.

Kurochi’s head was throbbing, and his heart was pounding so hard that he felt his chest might burst. The disturbing banter from the machines, the frightened faces and cries of the other students, the overwhelming fear of death lingering over his head… it was too much.

He was frozen in place, shaking and wheezing as he tried to catch his breath. Kurochi felt like he was going to faint, right then and there.

The only thing that pulled him out of his petrified state was movement–the movement of his brother stepping in front of him, holding an arm out. Shielding him, protecting him.

Kokichi was gritting his teeth, and though his stance appeared to be strong and firm, Kurochi could see his balled fists shaking.

While he was sure the action was meant to be protective and comforting, it made Kurochi only feel helpless and worthless that his younger brother was the one doing the protecting.

“Well, why don’t we just get out of these mechs?” The voice coming from the pink Exisal suggested. “It shouldn’t be too late for that. It worked all those other times, didn’t it?”

Other times…?

Those words made Kurochi’s head pound even harder. There was something trying to push through to the front of his mind, but it wouldn’t come. No matter how hard he tried, it just couldn’t break through.

“Y-yeah!” The red one shouted. The chatter beyond him was far too distracting, and the voices coming from the Exisals distracted him from his thoughts. “Let’s do that!”

“Get out…?” Kokichi’s voice was the next to distract him, and he realized just exactly what that meant.

Someone–apparently, five pilots, if the number of Exisals told him anything–were going to emerge from the cockpits of the robots.

“Okay, ready!” The pilot from the red Exisal cried out, and before the captive students could react, the cockpits of all of the Exisals shot open all at once.

The scene was the most bizarre thing Kurochi could have ever imagined.

Five teddy bears, moving on their own, leapt out of the Exisals, all with a flourish like it was some kind of dramatic reveal on a television show. There were flips to the ground, and a little song and dance to go along with it and everything.

It made the idea of them being kidnapped all the more surreal.

When their little show was over, the five teddy bears sang, all together in unison; “Rise and shine, ursine! With our powers combined,” the bears struck entirely new poses, all choreographed, all in sync with one another. “We are the Monokubs!”

All seventeen students stared, flabbergasted and shocked by the events that had taken place right before their very eyes. The only one who didn’t look completely lost and afraid was Rantaro. Instead, he was giving the ‘Monokubs’ a cautious glance over.

The first of the small teddy bears was the one in the middle. The left side of his body was red while the other side was white. He wore a black scarf that was just long enough to drag across the ground. There was a silver star pinned on the right side.

That one was the first to speak out of the five bears, and was the one with the boyish voice. “See? We’re out of the Exisals. Now we’re not scary anymore, right?” As if to completely throw off the class from any semblance of security, he started waving a black shuriken around. “Right? Right!?”

The second of the cubs Kurochi noticed was very obviously feminine, and Kurochi didn’t even need to hear her voice to know she was the one that chased him and his brother before. Like the first, the right side of her was white, while the other was a bit more elaborate with dark and light pink stripes. She had a flower pinned to her ear, and was wearing some kind of bikini top with a pink floral design–yet no matching bottoms.

She huffed, holding her paws together as if to convey distress without being able to change her expression. When she spoke, her voice was almost scolding. “Oh, your desperation’s only going to scare them more!”

The third was the loudest, most vulgar of the bunch. Whereas the first two had red and pink as their main colors, this one was blue with gray stars painted–or maybe stitched – around his eyes. There were squiggles of black on his chest that looked like someone had drawn on him with sharpie, to exaggerate the ‘manliness’ attribute this bear was clearly designed to convey. He wore something that Kurochi could only describe as armor on his shoulders. He pulled out a blue guitar from seemingly nowhere. Then he strummed the guitar, and shouted; “You punk-asses better brace yourselves!”

The pink bear shrieked, and she looked about as terrified as a plush toy could get. “And he’s just out-right terrifying!”

Ignoring her, the blue one continued to shout. “I’m a messenger from hell from the depths of hell, here to drag ya to hell!”

“No, no, Monokid–” The yellow bear interrupted. His attributes were far more plain and simple, only wearing glasses and having some kind of tiger striped pattern to gather some interest. “You’re sayin’ ‘hell’ too much. It’s ruining the hellish impact!”

“Eh?” The red one tilted his head. “What’s ‘hellish’ mean?”

“Goddamn it, Monotaro,” Monokid shrieked. “We’ve told you a hundred–no, a _million_ times! You’re breaking script!”

“H-hey…” As if to interrupt the chaos, the guy with purple hair spoke up again. “What’s up with these stuffed animals? How are they moving?”

The girl with long blue hair whimpered. “I… I have no idea…”

“Moving stuffed animals…” The girl with pony tails muttered, her voice still distant and cold. Yet, she seemed otherwise calm, all things considered.

“On top of that, they keep calling themselves the ‘Monokubs…” The student with the deepest voice among them chimed in again. “What does that even mean?”

_Monokubs…?_

Something about that word sparked a sharp pain in Kurochi’s head, and he gasped and nearly doubled over. He heard Kokichi cry out and grab for him, but it was muffled by a sharp ringing in his ears.

“Rochi?! Rochi, hey, what’s wrong?!”

Kurochi whimpered and shook his head, resisting the urge to continue to cradle his head. “I… I’m fine, it’s just… my head…”

“Wha–your head? Does your head hurt?” Monotaro flailed. “Do you have a headache? Do you want some medicine?”

“Hey! Don’t make ‘em think we’re on their side!” Monokid roared. “You’re shaming us Monokubs, you punk-ass bitch!”

“W-wait…!” The girl with blonde hair and purple eyes cried out. “Do you guys really call yourselves the ‘Monokubs?’”

She was looking towards the final green Monokub for answers. Unlike the rest, which were plush toys, this one was built out of metal and plastics. He stood out from the others, barely resembling them. If it wasn’t for the other four, Kurochi wouldn’t have been able to distinguish him as a ‘bear’ at all.

The green ‘bear’ remained silent, looking at her with about as much anxiety and distress as a robot could.

“Oh, don’t bother askin’ Monodam.” Monotaro chimed in. “He only talks to close friends. The years of abuse have really done a number on his heart.” With a lighthearted bounce, Monotaro turned to Monodam. “Isn’t that right, Monodam?”

Monodam only stared, and never gave a response.

“M-Monodam…!” The silence apparently was distressing to Monotaro, and he started making some noises that sounded like sobbing. “You won’t even open your heart… to _me?!”_

“... Looks like I was right.” Rantaro said, his voice carrying a casual and cool undertone. Yet even then, there was a distinctive strain to it. “This is… _exactly_ what I thought it was.”

Kurochi’s eyes drifted towards Rantaro, blinking a few times before it registered that Rantaro actually _recognized_ what was happening to them.

“Wh-what do you…?” Kokichi took the words right out of his mouth, brows furrowed and eyes locked on to Rantaro.

Rantaro ignored Kokichi’s question, and continued. “But who’s behind all this? Why the ridiculous theatrics, and the extra–”

“Gah! Shut up, you!” Monokid interrupted. Somehow, he sounded even angrier than he had before. “All o’ you are making me sick! Stupid normies, why are ya reacting like that?! I’m sick of it! It’s so boring, I think I’m gonna lose my _shit_ if you say one more normal thing!”

Monotaro crossed his arms. “Actually… don’t their clothes look kinda boring, too? They really don’t stand out so well. Right, Monosuke?”

“Of course they don’t.” The yellow bear, apparently the one named ‘Monosuke,’ sighed. “They haven’t gotten their first memory yet. Can’t you tell just from lookin’ at them?”

First memory…?

“Eh?” Monotaro held a paw to his mouth. “But that shoulda happened before they woke up… right?”

“H-hey, answer my question!” The girl cried out again. “If you guys are the Monokubs, then–”

“Hey!” Again interrupted, she yelped as Monokid advanced on her, shouting and yelling even louder than before. “Who the hell are _you_ punks?!”

The girl was caught off guard. “Huh?”

Another girl, tall with short silver hair, replied with a monotone voice; “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s probably a waste of time to even ask, but,” Monosuke started. He pressed his glasses up the bridge of his muzzle. “But youse guys don’t have any ‘Ultimate talents’ or anything like that, right?”

Ultimate talents…?

There was yet another sharp ringing in Kurochi’s ears, and a pain so intense that he thought his head might explode. He was thankful Kokichi still had a good hold on him, otherwise he suspected he might have collapsed without the support.

Ultimate talents… the Monokubs… the mechanical roar that felt all too familiar…

“I… don’t have one,” the girl who had been most vocal about their ordeal responded first, bowing her head and biting her lip. “I have a skill I devote myself to, but I wouldn’t call it an ‘Ultimate talent’ or anything…”

“M-me either…” The feminine boy with the hat spoke up next. “I… I don’t have anything like that…”

A chorus of voices agreed with the sentiment, but most of it was muffled by the white noise ringing in Kurochi’s ears.

_No. That’s wrong._

The thought came to him suddenly, and with it, came confusion. What was ‘wrong’ about what the other students were saying, lacking an ‘Ultimate talent’? He and Kokichi didn’t have talents like that. None of them even _looked_ like anything more than a bunch of normal students.

How could they be anything special?

Suddenly, a wave of memories hit him, so powerful and overwhelming that he felt faint from the sheer force they came with. The white noise immediately died down, and the splitting headache he felt was gone in an instant. Now he understood, with absolute clarity, what was happening.

He remembered.

“W… wait,” Kurochi stuttered as he fumbled out of his brother’s arms. “No, wait, that’s–”

“I knew it! Monophanie fucked up again!” Monokid roared, drowning out Kurochi’s voice in an instant. “These punks haven’t even gotten their first memory yet!”

Monosuke turned to the final Monokub, Monophanie, and addressed her with an annoyed tone; “You forgot again, didn’t you?”

Monophanie didn’t respond to him. Rather, instead, she bowed her head, and started snoring peacefully.

“Wha–she’s sleeping?” Monotaro exclaimed, though he hushed his voice into a soft whisper. “Did she seem really tired to any of you guys?”

“She’s obviously fakin’ it.” Monosuke didn’t at all attempt to hush his voice, and only appeared to be more annoyed than before. “She does this every time, and you always fall for it.”

His annoyance didn’t stir Monophanie any, and she only made exaggerated but quiet snoring noises that were definitely faked.

“Well, even if she’s faking, she looks so peaceful…” Monotaro whispered. “So let’s whisper so we don’t wake her up, okay?”

Monokid didn’t seem all that impressed, but sure enough, he whispered; “Hmph… if you say so!”

“A-anyway…” The girl from before continued. “If you guys really _are_ the Monokubs, then–”

“Who cares!” Monosuke interrupted. “Don’t worry about us. The real issue is youse bastards. Well, ‘issue’ is putting it lightly… This is actually a huge problem.” Monosuke’s voice grew more stern and serious. “Youse all forgotten your talents and became generic students–”

“Ugh! Can we cut the backstory crap already?!” Monokid snapped. “C’mooon! Just hit ‘em with the light, and let’s get this party started!”

“W-wait…” Kurochi tried to interject, but he went ignored.

Monosuke rolled his eyes. “Now, now, Monokid, we gotta set the stage. You know this part’s important.”

“ _Wait!”_

Kurochi wasn’t expecting his voice to become so loud, and the gymnasium seemed to amplify it ten fold when he was finally able to shout. Finally, all five bears turned their attention towards him, stunned into silence.

They weren’t the only ones, as all sixteen other students, his brother included, stared at him with shock and awe. Their eyes were all on him, and the pressure made him want to shrink down.

Swallowing dryly, he forced his attention back to the Monokubs, balling his fists.

“I… I _remember,”_ he breathed. “I know... I know who you are, I know about the Ultimate Hunt, I know what you’re planning…!”

“Eh? W-wait, you _remember?_ ” Monotaro blubbered. “Wait, if they didn’t get their first memory yet, how does _he_ remember?”

“It’s ‘cause he’s the extra!” Monokid barked. “The memory wipe ain’t strong enough for seventeen people! There’s always complications when there’s an extra!”

Monophanie pressed both of her paws to her face. “B-but I thought the other one was…?”

“J-just calm down, all of youse,” Monosuke commanded, though his voice was shaking. “Even so, there’s never been an error like _this_ before… What do we do? Do we proceed?”

“N-no…!” Kurochi cried out. “You can’t, you have to let us go!”

Monokid moved towards him. “Well ya lil’punk ass bastard, if ya really remember, then you know we can’t do that!”

“Hey, what the fuck is going on here?!” The crude girl spat, glaring at Kurochi with a fearful and suspicious gaze. “What do you know?! What do you remember? What the _fuck_ are you talking about?!”

“How do you know what they are planning?” The brunette with her hair tied up in two ponytails remarked next, glaring at Kurochi with an even more suspicious gaze. Her eyes narrowed. “Tell us what is going on here, _now.”_

“R-Rochi…?” Kokichi’s voice tore Kurochi’s attention away from the Monokubs and the other students, and when he saw the concern and confusion on Kokichi’s face, he could hear his heart beating in his ears.

No one else remembered. No one else, not even his own brother, truly knew what was going on–

“K-Kii-chi,” Kurochi wheezed. “We, we need to run, we need to get out of here…!”

“Wh–what? Why? _How?_ What’s going on?!”

Kurochi didn’t bother responding to Kokichi. There wasn’t enough time for explanations. Grabbing him by the wrist, Kurochi turned towards the gym’s exit, only for the green Exisal to jump from the back of the gymnasium and in between them and the exit.

“Good thinking, Monodam!” Monotaro cried out. “Don’t let any of them escape! They need to remember their true selves!”

“Do you think it would work, though?” Monosuke cautioned. “If the memory wipe didn’t work on him, then implanting the memories might make something else go screwy…”

“Well, it ain’t like we have any other choice!” Monokid shouted.

“H-he’s right, you know,” Monophanie agreed. “Even with this… setback, we cannot stop now. We have to make the others remember their true selves, and unlock their sealed talents from within!”

Monotaro gasped, and pressed his paws to his face. “Oh, Monophanie! You’re awake!”

“Sealed… talents? Memories? True selves?” Kokichi sounded so lost and confused, turning to the Monokubs and then back to Kurochi. “What’s going on? What are they talking about?”

“They…” Kurochi tried to speak, but his voice cracked. “They’re going to–they want to make us–as revenge, for everything that happened, they’re–”

“Eeeeep! He knows too much!” Monophanie shrieked. “This isn’t just a memory failure, it’s a total system failure! We need to hurry, show them the Flashback Light! Maybe it’ll override his memories!”

“Revenge…?” The other blond girl repeated, her voice wavering. “Revenge, for _what…?_ ” She turned to the Monokubs, and repeated; “Hey! Answer us! What are you getting revenge on us for?!”

“Eeeeek! Hurry, _hurry!_ They’ll remember everything at this rate!” Monophanie squealed. “Hurry, before it’s too late!”

Monotaro tilted his head, as clueless as ever. “Uh, but wait, don’t we need to give them their Ultimate uniforms first?”

“There ain’t any time for that!” Monosuke retorted. Suddenly, there was a strange looking flashlight in his paws. “They don’t need to be awake for that. We’ll just hit ‘em when they’re asleep! If that little brat gets a word in and the others remember too, then we’ll _really_ be screwed!”

“Wha– _no!”_ Kurochi cried out, frantically looking around the gym, for any possible exit before it was too late. “You can’t! You can’t keep doing this to us, we didn’t do anything wrong, please–!”

No amount of protesting could have stopped the flick of a switch.

Once Monosuke turned on the flashlight, everything went white. There was no gym, no other students, nothing. Nothing but himself, his existence, and the endless stream of information that his mind was trying to process.

The memories he had before were fading. Despite his every attempt, despite struggling to retain them with every ounce of his being, the memories that were burned into his mind faded into ash.

There was nothing left. Kurochi couldn’t even remember what was so important about them. Everything around him went from a blinding white to a darkness so oppressive he found it difficult to breathe. He didn’t know how far or how long he had slipped under for.

Only that there was a never ending sea of darkness to greet him.

………

……

…


	3. Prologue, Chapter 3: Birds in a Cage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> System Error &H8007007E(-2147024770). The specified module could not be found.
> 
> M:\ is not accessible. 
> 
> The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.

A glimmer. There was a glimmer of light. Soft and dim, yet there wasn’t any warmth in this light.

Cold. Everything that he was–the glimmer, his form, his being–everything, were nothing more than flickering fragments of light and regret. That was all his existence amounted to. A useless form without shape or purpose. A cold and worthless being.

As his mind flickered to life, he heard a voice. A voice calling out–not to him, or to anyone, but drawing him away from the darkness and into the light.

He was in a prison. A small, cold, claustrophobic space that kept him from the brightness just outside.

The voice had gone quiet. Kurochi’s heart started racing.

He needed to get out.

He needed to–

With a sudden push on the locker door, it swung open and out he came, tripping and falling onto the ground.

“R-Rochi!”

Dazed, Kurochi didn’t immediately answer the other, even as he rushed to his side. He groaned, shaking his head as if that would expel the fog that crept up from the impact. Had he hit his head that hard on the ground? He had thought he’d fallen onto his arms, his elbows surely scraped from his tumble, but his head was throbbing.

“Rochi–” Suddenly, there was a gloved hand on Kurochi’s shoulder. “Are you okay? Rochi? Are you hurt?”

Groaning some more, Kurochi looked up to see a face that mirrored his own. Lilac eyes, messy dark hair that glimmered purple in the light, pale skin. Those features weren’t the only things that were mirrored, however–even their uniforms were near exact reflections of one another. The only major differences were the fact that Kokichi was wearing a cape lined with purple satin and trimmed with gold detailing, and the fact that Kokichi's lock picking tools were clasped to his belt, while Kurochi merely decorated his clasp with a lock and key.

Seeing him there made Kurochi smile, sheepish and unsure, but just seeing his brother’s face made him feel a little more at ease.

“Kii-chi…” He started, though he grumbled softly and shook his head. “No, I’m good. I’m okay. What about you? Are you hurt or anything?”

"No, I'm fine..." Kokichi said, though soon, he was smiling too. "Well... aside from the headache I have from falling on my face." It was a small joke, something to help ease the tension and made Kurochi snicker.

The brief moment of cheer vanished, however, once Kurochi looked around the room. “Where are we? A classroom? We’re in some school?” His mouth twisted into a frown. “… How did we end up here?”

"Beats me… What's with this place?" Kokichi looked at the windows, frowning. "Why is there barbed wire on the windows? Are we... trapped here?"

Before Kurochi could even think to open his mouth to respond, however, a chorus of five unfamiliar voices rang in his ears.

“Rise and shine, ursine!”

Gasping, both Kokichi and Kurochi spun around to face the front of the classroom, and at the five objects that certainly weren’t there before. Four of them looked like variations of a teddy bear, while the last one looked like some kind of robotic version of the rest.

“Wh-what the–?!”

Immediately before anything else, Kokichi jumped in front of him, putting himself in between Kurochi and the five bears.

“Aw, don’t give us that!” Monotaro whined. “We aren’t gonna hurt you! We’re just here to check up on you, that’s all.”

“But it is kind of sweet how quick he is to protect his brother, isn’t it?” Monophanie said with a sigh. “Even if he probably couldn’t win a fight… I’m kind of jealous...”

“Eh, enough of the chatter, dingbats. Ya’know we ain’t got time for that,” Monosuke scoffed. “We gotta check to see if it… _worked.”_

Monotaro tilted his head. “Huh? Worked? What worked?”

Monophanie shrieked. “Monotaro! Don’t tell me you already forgot!”

Kurochi and Kokichi were staring at the five bears as they bickered between one another, beads of sweat rolling down their foreheads. Kurochi bit his lip, shaking and nervous. He saw Kokichi was shaking too, if only ever so slightly.

“What… what _are_ you?” Kokichi asked, cautious and unsure. “You’re… you’re not just teddy bears or stuffed animals…”

“Hell yeah! We’re not the Monokubs, we’re stuffed animals!” Monokid bellowed.

Monosuke bowed his head and pressed a paw to his face. “Monokid, you got your lines backwards again…”

“Uh, uh…!” Panicked, Monokid took out a blue guitar–wherever the hell he was keeping the thing – and immediately broke it in half. “No, stuffed animals, us! The Monokubs, them!”

“Oh geez, it’s even worse now…”

As Monosuke started shaking his head, Kurochi’s eyes furrowed and his lips parted. Something they said stuck with him, and kept gnawing at the back of his mind.

 _“_ The… Monokubs?”

When he spoke, all five of the bears looked at him, their beady eyes somehow staring him down and directly into his soul. Finally, Monophanie spoke; “So, have you heard of us?”

Heard of them…?

Kurochi tried, he tried with all of his might to think of if he had ever heard of ‘the Monokubs.’ Try as he might, nothing came to him, nothing except the raw feeling of knowing he had forgotten something.

“I…” Kurochi swallowed, and after a moment, he shook his head. “No, I don’t… I don’t think so?”

“Yeah, me either,” Kokichi chimed in, glancing back at Kurochi before back at the Monokubs. “This is the first time I’m hearing it…”

Things fell silent, and all of the so-called Monokubs started looking at each other. Finally, Monotaro threw his arms up into the air. “Yaaaay! It worked!”

Sticking out his tongue and rubbing his head with his paw, Monokid sighed with relief. “Phew! Had me worried there for a second! We would’ve been in deeeeep shit if it failed…”

“Well, we ain’t out of the woods yet. The override could fail at any moment… We’d best keep an eye on this one.” Monosuke warned, gesturing his head at Kurochi. “Can’t have these brats ruining things any more than they already have…”

Kokichi raised a brow. “Override…? Worried? About _what?”_

“Oh, don’t mind your pretty little head about it,” Monophanie giggled. “Anyway, we should go check on the other students.”

“You’re right,” Monosuke agreed. “Even if the override worked on this one, it might’ve failed on someone else… I’m tellin’ ya, they better give us something sweet for this overtime we’re gettin’.”

“W-wait,” Kurochi interjected. “Where are we, what are you going to do with–”

 _“_ Arugh! I’m so sick of answering these dumb ass questions!” Monokid didn’t let him finish, already bringing out yet another blue guitar from seemingly nowhere. “Figure it out for yourselves, otherwise I’mma whack your knees with this!”

“Monokid, you can’t!” Monotaro cried out in protest. “They need to be able to participate in the… _special activity_ later. You know that!”

“Okay, okay, _fine._ But I’m outta here! I need to go drown myself in honey, I’m so sick of this bullshit!”

Before anyone else could so much as say a word, however, Monokid jumped up, into the ceiling–and suddenly, he was no longer there.

Kurochi sputtered _._ “W-where did he–”

“Geez, he acts like we ain’t all sick of this crap,” Monosuke grumbled, interrupting Kurochi.

Monophanie hung her head. “It _is_ getting a little bit boring and repetitive…”

“But that’s why we’re here!” Monotaro beamed. “We’re here to make sure nothing gets too stale! We gotta keep up with the demands, you know?”

Monosuke huffed as he fixed his glasses. “Yeah, yeah. We know the drill. We gotta get out of here and check up on the rest of this lot.”

Monotaro finally turned to the twins, and bowed. “Well! It was nice meeting you two! Good luck, and have fun meeting everyone else!”

Kurochi swallowed a hard lump in his throat. “Everyone… else?”

Not that his question mattered. As soon as Monotaro stood upright, the four remaining Monokubs jumped up into the ceiling, all four of them mysteriously vanishing out of sight.

“... Well, okay, that was _weird,”_ Kokichi stated, before laughing. Though there was a nervous hint in that laughter, one that Kurochi could just barely detect. “So… uh, how did they–you know. They just… vanished into thin air. Are we–am I dreaming? Hey, Rochi,” Kokichi turned around to face Kurochi. “Pinch my cheek for me?”

Kurochi blinked, and frowned as he shook his head. “You’re not asleep, Kii-chi…”

“Then can someone explain how we just talked to five sentient teddy bears, who can apparently disappear without even…”

Kokichi’s voice trailed off, and he laughed again. The nervousness was a bit more obvious as he ran his fingers through his hair, and Kurochi tensed.

“None of this is making _any_ sense,” Kokichi whispered. “Those bears, this… school? Ugh, it’s all giving me a bad headache.” Kokichi turned to Kurochi and frowned. “You don’t… happen to remember anything about how we got here, right?”

Kurochi only shook his head. “No, not at all… I don’t remember anything at all.” Groaning, Kurochi pressed the palm of his hand to his head. “I can’t… remember–”

Suddenly there was a sharp, searing pain, and along with it came a brief image. An image of him sitting in a strange chair with an even stranger helmet on his head.

With a gasp, Kurochi doubled over, groaning loudly from the throbbing headache. It didn’t take long for him to feel Kokichi’s hand on his chest and the other on his back. “H-hey, Rochi, what’s wrong?! Are you okay?”

After another groan, Kurochi nodded. “Y-yeah, sorry. Just… just a really bad headache. I thought… I thought, for a second, I might’ve…”

The image he saw was already gone, long gone from the front of his mind. Kurochi bit his lip. What was it? What was he trying to remember?

In the end, nothing came to him.

“Hey… Rochi, take it easy, okay?” Kokichi didn’t leave his side, not for a second. He started rubbing circles into Kurochi’s back. “Don’t push it. If you can’t remember, then you can’t. Don't hurt yourself, okay?”

Finally turning his head to face him, Kurochi saw the open, honest concern in his brother’s eyes, how his brows wrinkled with worry and the light tremor he felt from Kokichi’s hands. He could barely feel it through the fabric of his jacket and shirt.

Straightening himself, Kurochi nodded and forced out a soft smile. “Yeah… okay. Sorry. I’m okay, really.”

Kokichi raised a brow at him, his concern morphing into skepticism, before he finally relaxed. “Well, okay. If you’re sure.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

Before either of them could say another word, however, something in their pockets chimed, and both of them were startled.

“Ack! What, what now?” Kokichi scowled as he reached into his right pocket, and pulled out what looked like a small tablet. When searching his left pocket, Kurochi found the same exact device hidden there.

“What the…?” Kurochi looked over the little tablet, flipping it over and examining it from all angles. “What _is_ this? A… ‘Monopad?’ What…?”

“... Yeeeaaaaah, this isn’t totally freaky or weird in the slightest,” Kokichi said, voice cheery yet sarcastic. “How the hell did these get in our pockets? Actually, you know what? I don’t think I want to know.”

When Kurochi flipped the tablet over screen side up, he noticed that the tablet had booted up. On the screen, his name and title was being displayed.

_Kurochi Ouma, the Ultimate Cryptographer._

“Oh, great, _wonderful_ , the thing knows too much,” Kokichi spat, immediately showing his to Kurochi. “Look! It even has my title… my _real_ one.”

Reading it over, Kurochi could only frown. Kokichi’s Ultimate Title, “the Ultimate Supreme Leader,” though his official given title, was not what was displayed on the screen. No, in fact, it really did display Kokichi’s shorter, albeit more accurate, title.

_Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Leader._

“Only _I’m_ supposed to know that,” Kokichi wheezed. Even if it was just a single word missing, Kurochi was sympathetic. The privacy and secrecy was important to his brother. “Well, me and you, but… My official title was recognized as ‘Supreme Leader,’ _not_ just ‘Leader’–I asked the scouters to make that my title so no one would think I was actually… Wait, does that mean, whoever’s done this, do they know about… About my… our…?”

Kokichi’s voice trailed off, and Kurochi could feel his heart skip a beat. “W-wait… maybe they just, um. Shortened it, without really knowing…? I mean, it’s technically your real title and all, b-but… it’s not too far of a stretch, right? Maybe they don’t know about D.I.C.E. and they were just being lazy.”

“Maybe…” Though he nodded once, Kurochi doubted that Kokichi was convinced. Even he himself wasn’t all that convinced. “It’s better to assume the worst of the enemy than the best. They did kidnap us, and all.”

Kurochi swallowed. “K-kidnapped…?”

“Well, yeah. You think we came into this place willingly? I seriously doubt it.”

At the thought, Kurochi turned his attention back to his tablet, looking at the menu that had popped up. There were six options he could choose from; a map, an application labeled as “Truth Bullets” that was locked, another application to keep track of items and potential gifts one might own, another to show the report card of other students, one labeled “school rules” he also couldn’t access, and finally, a settings application he had no intention of using.

“What the hell is this ‘Truth bullets’ app?” Kokichi took the words right out of his mouth. “And what does it mean by ‘review evidence and witness accounts you’ve made a record of’? Evidence? Witness accounts? It sounds like we’re about to play cops and robbers…”

_Play cops and robbers…_

Something about what Kokichi said stuck with him, and Kurochi was even more uneasy at the thought. Cops and robbers… judges and a culprit… something about it made him swallow dryly.

Thankfully, Kokichi didn’t let him stay hung up on the thought, and started squinting. “Oh. The notification we got, it was from the app keeping track of everyone’s report cards. It looks like it updated with info on the others…”

At being reminded that they were, apparently, not alone, Kurochi went and decided to check the app for himself. Sure enough, the notification they received was from that app. Upon opening it, he saw at the top sixteen silhouettes. Only one of them was at all familiar.

Immediately, Kurochi tapped on the silhouette that was obviously familiar, and sure enough, a picture of his brother appeared on the right hand side of the screen, along with a short profile relating to him. Height, weight, likes and dislikes, and even his title–which to his minor relief, listed Kokichi as the “Ultimate Supreme Leader.”

That hopefully meant that the others would see the same thing, if their information was identical across the board. It made the theory of their captor being lazy a little more plausible.

“I feel like something’s weird about this,” Kokichi muttered. “Why am I not on the list?”

“Huh? But you are,” Kurochi clarified before immediately showing Kokichi his screen. “See? On mine, you’re there, but I’m not...”

Kokichi blinked and gave a soft hum. “Oh, you’re right… I guess that makes sense, huh? It’d be kind of pointless to have a profile for yourself. What, am I gonna magically forget who I am and need some weird program to jog my memory?” Kokichi laughed at himself. “I don’t know why that was weird to me. Yeah, this seems like basic stuff...”

Kurochi flipped the screen back to look it over, and he carefully took in the details of all of the other students. Below the silhouettes was a flower with five black–or rather, empty–petals, a name, and a small biography of each student. The biographies listed their height, weight, bust size, blood type, date of birth, likes, dislikes, and extra notes that only displayed their Ultimate Talents. Beside the small biography was a photo of what he assumed to be the student in question, the photos lining up with their respective silhouettes. Fifteen new faces and names, all students. His brother was the only exception–having his flower completely filled out and pink, and five extra tabs that had minor summaries of Kokichi’s personality.

Nothing was making sense.

As Kurochi scrolled through the profiles over and over, all it did was raise more questions than give him answers. Why…? Why were they trapped in such a strange place? Who would want seventeen students chosen by the Ultimate Initiative?

Kurochi felt another headache coming on just from thinking about it.

“Welp, I guess we don’t have much of a choice,” Kokichi said as he slipped his Monopad into his pocket, and tucked his hands behind his head. “We should start looking for a way out of this mess.”

Nodding, Kurochi also stuffed his own tablet into his pocket. “Yeah… but, what about the others?”

Kokichi shrugged. “If we run into anyone, we’ll say hi. But our top priority is finding an exit. All of the others are gonna need a way out too, after all.” Taking a step towards the classroom door, Kokichi let his arms fall back to his sides for a moment, before he extended his right hand to Kurochi. “C’mon. Let’s go.”

Nodding again, Kurochi took Kokichi’s hand into his. “Right.”

With a reassuring squeeze, Kokichi led the way out of the classroom and down the hall. Though cautious, his strides were confident and with purpose, while Kurochi felt like he could barely keep up.

Upon finding a set of stairs they ventured down, and they continued to wander the overgrown halls of the abandoned school. Kurochi glanced around. The scenery only made anxiety pool in his stomach, and had to fight with every inch of his willpower to resist trembling.

"Man, this place looks like shit," Kokichi started. "With how overgrown it is, it's more than likely that this school hasn't seen a human being in several years, but..." Even though Kokichi wasn't facing him, Kurochi could see his gaze hardening. "... That's not possible, either. The classroom we were in, it had extremely new tech installed. That LCD screen can't be a day old–it looked brand new."

Kurochi blinked, and frowned. "Wait, did it...? I didn't even notice."

"Yeah, it was definitely brand new... but that doesn't make sense, does it?" Kokichi finally turned to face him, and his expression had darkened. "New technology in an abandoned school... You'd think that they'd clean the place up, if they were going to install new tech to such a run down place. Something just isn't right here–"

Since both of the twins were so preoccupied with their conversation and thoughts, they hadn't been paying attention to what was ahead. Or, rather, _who_ was ahead.

Kokichi, being the one leading the way, crashed right into the girl with full force, stumbling and yelping as she shrieked and fell over. Kokichi had fallen flat on his face, dragging Kurochi down with him by accident.

Kokichi sat up, blinked, and shook his head for a moment. "Oof, _ow..."_

"What–what the _fuck_ , watch where you shota boy-toys are going!" Kurochi almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, if he hadn't seen the strawberry blonde girl speaking with his own two eyes. "Ugh! G-getting double teamed by a pair of twins, this place is getting shittier and shittier by the minute!"

Kurochi's face twisted into a confused scowl as he stood. "Shota... boy-toys?"

 _"Wow,_ okay, gonna pretend I didn't hear that," Kokichi grumbled, standing up and wiping the dirt off of his clothes. "Anyway, sorry about that. Kinda easy to get distracted when you've been kidnapped and locked away in an abandoned school!" Kokichi gave the girl a glance over, and hummed. "You're Miu, right?"

"Fuck _yeah_ I am!" Miu snarled. "I'm the gorgeous girl genius, Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Inve–"

"Inventor, yeah, yeah, we’ve read your profile." Kokichi interrupted, though he extended out his hand to help Miu to her feet. "Name's Kokichi. And this," he gestured to Kurochi. "Is my brother, Kurochi. Sorry for running into you like that."

"Yeah, you better be fucking sorry!" Miu spat. "If you even hurt a single hair on this beautiful, _brilliant_ head of mine, you'd owe the whole fucking world an apology!"

Kurochi raised a brow and frowned. "But we already apologized."

"–Well, good! Now, don't do it again, or else!"

Things fell silent between the three of them for a moment, staring at one another. Kokichi blinked, however, and when he finally opened his mouth to speak, he said–

"Well, sorry, but it'd be _reeeeally_ hard not to walk into a big, ugly cow."

 _–_ Something Kurochi would have never thought he'd _ever_ hear Kokichi say.

Blinking, Kurochi turned to Kokichi, mouth agape and armed with a question of why. However, Miu's shriek drowned him out.

"H-hey what gives?" Suddenly Miu's aggression was gone, replaced by something meek and skittish. The abrupt change in demeanor left Kurochi even more surprised than before. Her face was flushed, and her lower lip trembling. “I-I’m not a big ugly cow!”

“Oh?” Kokichi said, tilting his head and pressing a finger to his lips. Acting innocent, acting cute, before more foul words slipped passed his lips; “So then you’re like, a slutty pig then?”

Again, before Kurochi could even begin to ask _why_ Kokichi would say such a thing, Miu shrieked and grabbed his attention. He expected her to be offended, maybe even crying–but instead, her cheeks were flushed a darker red, and her expression was far more… lewd than offended.

"Hm, thought so," Kokichi muttered, just barely loud enough for Kurochi to hear, before he said out loud with a happy smile; "So you like that sort of thing, don't you? I'll be sure to keep that in mind." Suddenly, Kokichi grabbed Kurochi's wrist. "Let's go, Rochi! We've got business to take care of."

As Kokichi pulled Kurochi along, Miu shrieked from behind them; “H-hey! You cuck lords can’t j-just tease a girl and leave her hanging! _Hey!”_

While Kurochi had turned his head back to look at her, Kokichi didn’t let him stop. She didn’t give chase to them, much to Kurochi’s silent relief, and the last thing he heard her say was something about ‘twinks’ and ‘cock-suckers.’

“What an interesting character,” Kokichi mused, though there was a grin on his face. “Though she kinda wears her heart on her sleeve, huh?”

Kurochi turned back to his brother, raising a brow in confusion. “I… don’t know about that.”

“Huh? But it was kind of really obvious she’s into that, isn’t it?” Kokichi tilted his head. “Everything about her just screamed; ‘humiliate me, please!’ At least, I thought it was pretty obvious.”

Kokichi shrugged, and Kurochi only frowned. “Well… I guess she _did_ seem really into it… But I don’t think my ears can handle you giving her what she wants, thanks.” Kokichi only snickered, which made Kurochi smile. Though a part of him _was_ serious, he had a strong feeling that he was just going to have to live with the idea of his brother spouting out excessive profanity while they were around that girl.

“Eh, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” With his free hand, Kokichi took out his Monopad. He struggled a bit, but he eventually got the ‘map’ application open. “Anyway, as far as I can tell, this map they’ve given us is accurate. We should probably head out towards the courtyard and look around. I seriously doubt we’d be able to just run off of the school grounds easily, all things considered, but there can’t be a wall we can’t figure out how to climb.”

Kokichi’s words had Kurochi smiling with a little bit of hope and confidence. It was true–while they weren’t _professionals,_ both he and Kokichi were excellent climbers. They had to be, with the kind of life they lead. There was no wall too tall for them to scale.

And once they did, they would be able to get out of that school, along with all of the other students trapped inside.

“Hey, I think this is the entrance!” Kokichi exclaimed, pulling Kurochi out of his thoughts. Looking at his Monopad to confirm, he nodded once before slipping it back into his pocket. “Yep. This is definitely the main entrance. Looks like we can just, get out from here…”

Despite the relatively good news, Kokichi didn’t progress. He didn’t step forward or anything, and only continued to stare at the doors that lead to outside of the school.

“Kii-chi?” Kurochi frowned, stepping up beside him and releasing Kokichi’s hand only to rest it on his shoulder. “What’s wrong?”

Kokichi blinked, and turned to him. His expression was carved from stone, a neutral mask he slipped on whenever he was trying to find a lie in someone else or evaluate the situation. Turning back towards the door, Kurochi could only guess it had to have been the latter.

“... This is too _easy,”_ he muttered. “Seventeen kidnapped students, and the front door isn’t even boarded up. The windows were covered in barbed wire, and yet, we can just… leave?”

Now that Kokichi had pointed out, Kurochi also felt uneasy as his eyes fell onto the main entrance doors. The little bit of hope suddenly seemed so fleeting. “Do you think it’s trapped, or something…? Like it’s rigged to explode?”

“Hmm…” Kokichi pulled away from Kurochi and stepped forward, much to his dismay. If the door _was_ set to explode, or something drastic like that, his brother would be caught in the trap with how close he was. Though after a moment of looking it over, Kokichi turned back to him and shook his head. “Not from the inside, no. There could be something on the other side, but… I don’t think it’s trapped, no.”

Kurochi sighed, releasing a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, and he pouted. “Geez, Kii-chi, you’re going to give me a heart attack like that,” he mumbled, before stepping over to Kokichi and leaned against him, putting all of the weight he could into it and wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Be more careful… otherwise, I might die.” Kurochi couldn’t help but grin, no matter how hard he tried to suppress it. “Oh no, Kii-chi, I think I’m dyiiing…” Kurochi tried to lean even more of his weight against him. “Remember me, Kii-chiiii…”

“Ack! Rochi, get off!” Kokichi swatted his hand at him, trying to step away but being effectively trapped. Though Kokichi was smiling, as he always did. It was only for a second, however, and he started pouting by puffing out his cheeks. “You’re too heavy! We’re _both_ gonna fall over, and it’s gonna be all your fault!”

“I’m dyiiiing, though,” Kurochi whined. “I’m dying because my little brother was being so careless and gave me a heart attaaaack! And he’s not even sorry for it!”

“Oh my _god,_ shut up, you’re such a nerd,” Kokichi half whined, half teased, before finally shoving Kurochi away. “Also, just because I’m seven minutes younger than you doesn’t mean I’m the ‘little’ brother! We’re twins, we were born at the same time.”

Kurochi swayed when Kokichi gave him the opening, and he couldn’t stop grinning. _“Actually,_ it’s seven and a _half.”_

Whether or not Kokichi gave him the fodder on purpose for their little game or on accident, it didn’t matter. The exaggerated glare Kokichi gave him made Kurochi snicker, almost bursting out into laughter.

“Oh, _ha ha,_ so funny, like that fact isn’t thrown in my face a million times a day! Ugh, you’re the worst brother _ever!”_ Kokichi pouted again, crossing his arms and puffing out his cheeks more. “When we get out of here, I’m disowning you!”

The reminder of their current situation dampened the mood quite drastically, and Kurochi’s giggle fit was reduced into a small smile. “... Well, when we get out of here, I’ll buy you a big bottle of soda.”

“Hmph,” Kokichi huffed and closed his eyes, stubbornly playing his part well. Then he opened an eye, and grinned. “Okay, fine. I won’t disown you yet. But I _will_ have to exact my revenge, you know!”

“I know, I know…” Probably the form in some harmless prank, Kurochi was sure. That was how their little game went, always and without fail. “So… you think we should open it?”

“Well, _yeah, of course_ we should open it.” Kokichi’s cheer vanished upon facing the door once again. “What other choice do we have? Unless there’s another exit…”

Though neither of them checked the map, they were both sure that there was no other way out. Not a way out they had current access to, at any rate.

With determination glimmering in his eyes, Kokichi didn’t even hesitate for a second–he grabbed the door’s knobs, and in a flash the doors were wide open.

The light was blinding, from the clear sun above in the bright blue sky. It was so bright in comparison to the hallways they were wandering through, that both Kokichi and Kurochi squinted at the burst of light.

And then, they finally saw why the door wasn’t locked.

All around the campus of the school was a wall. A giant wall, which they both half expected. What they _didn’t_ expect, however, was the glass dome that was settled on _top_ of that wall, encasing the school and the school grounds all within an inescapable prison.

Maybe there were no bars, but they were definitely in a prison, trapped like a bird in a cage, with no hope of escaping.

“What the _hell_ is this?!” Kokichi exclaimed, eyes fixated on the dome. “I–what? _What?”_

Kurochi felt the same sentiment echoing in his chest, twisting with fear and dread.

“That–this literally makes _no_ sense!” Kokichi turned to him, eyes wide and confused, his expression open and honest. “What is going on…? Where the hell–where the hell _are_ we? How is that even possible–? What is going _on_ here?”

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Kurochi didn’t take his eyes off of the dome. He didn’t think Kokichi was actually expecting an answer, but he gave one anyway in a soft, horrified whisper; “I don’t know, Kokichi… I don’t _know.”_


	4. Prologue, Chapter 4: Brilliant Wild Child

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After waking up in a locker, Kurochi and Kokichi both explored the school to look for a way out. Once they got outside, however, they realized that escaping their strange prison would be a lot harder than they initially thought.

They stared helplessly at their glass prison for far too long, unable to comprehend or process just what kind of turn their situation had taken. It already had been completely absurd with those walking, talking teddy bears that had the power to essentially disappear into thin air, but somehow, the glass dome made the whole situation even _more_ absurd. Surreal, like a fantasy gone incredibly wrong. Was it even physically possible to be trapped in what amounted to a giant snow globe?

When Kurochi’s eyes fell, he only stared at the ground, not able to come up with an answer.

“All right, things… just got waaay more complicated,” Kurochi heard his brother mutter under his breath, before he saw him bite the tip of his thumb in frustration. “Damn it. So much for _climbing_ our way out, huh…”

Kurochi only bit his lower lip, shaken and unsure, but naturally drawn closer to Kokichi. Somehow, just being closer to him made Kurochi feel safer. “Kokichi… what–what are we going to _do?”_

Kokichi didn’t respond, seemingly lost in thought. His eyes scanned around frantically, and Kurochi could tell Kokichi’s mind was racing to find the answer.

“... The only thing we _can_ do, is look around the perimeter of the wall,” Kokichi answered, brows furrowed. “There has to be a way in and out. It’s not like they could put a giant glass dome over this school in one night, after all. They had to have brought us all in here when we were unconscious, or something…” Though, Kokichi’s brows furrowed, and his jaw tightened. “But whoever has done this… they were planning it for a long, _long_ time. I don’t know if they wanted us seventeen students _specifically,_ but there is no way that this place didn’t take years to construct. How they did it without anyone noticing… the financial cost and maintenance… workers and materials... this could be _huge.”_

Kurochi swallowed a hard lump in his throat that just wouldn’t budge. While Kokichi always planned for the worst, he was afraid that he wasn’t too far off the mark. Taking his eyes off of his brother and looking back towards their prison, he knew that Kokichi had to be right. There was no way this _wasn’t_ huge.

“Anyway, we’ll have time to think about that later, okay?” Kokichi caught his attention once more, turning towards him with a smile on his face. “We’ll get out of this mess. We always do, right?”

Kurochi wasn’t so sure, and he didn’t think his brother was, either. They had no idea what they were truly up against, or how they would overcome it. Though, Kokichi had a point. They’ve been to hell and back, and survived each and every time. This would be no different.

So, he tried to smile for him, hoping it would reassure Kokichi. “Yeah. You’re right. We just… have to stay calm, and think. Right?”

Kokichi nodded, and as he reached out to grab Kurochi’s hand, his smile brightened. “All right. Then, let’s get going. The sooner we find the exit, the better.”

With his own smile turning a little more genuine, Kurochi squeezed Kokichi’s hand, and started following him on the path to the outer wall.

It was easy enough to follow the wall around the entire campus, catching glimpses of other students, though not taking the time to stop for introductions if it wasn’t necessary. Especially since Kokichi was so focused on searching for an exit. They would have time to make proper introductions later.

Yet despite making a full circle around the circumference of the school, they found nothing on the outside wall.

“Damn it,” Kokichi growled, and ran a hand through his hair. “I figured finding an exit wouldn’t be _easy,_ but…”

“I’m sure there’s got to be an exit around here somewhere,” Kurochi said quickly, squeezing his brother’s hand again. Though he wasn’t looking at Kokichi directly, too keenly watching the hand Kokichi ran through his hair. It made him anxious. “There might be an exit underground, or something…”

“Yeah, maybe.” Much to Kurochi’s relief, Kokichi let his hand fall to his side, and he turned to face him. “Once we find it, then we’re home free, right? We just have to _find_ it. Hm… I was thinking, maybe that building in the back might have more to it–”

Kokichi suddenly went quiet, and his gaze was locked onto something other than himself and the wall that kept them trapped. His brows furrowed, making him look a little concerned, but mostly confused.

“Huh? Kii-chi?” Kurochi turned to face whatever had caught Kokichi’s eye, and was even more puzzled to find that it was another student. A tall one, probably taller than any human being Kurochi had ever seen before–and big, too, with muscles so large that he could probably knock someone out just by flicking them with his finger. While he wore a brown suit with a green tie and glasses, his bare feet and his long, bushy, tangled mess of brown hair only added on to the feeling that he wasn’t someone Kurochi wanted to mess with.

Though Kokichi didn’t take his eyes off of him, his expression softening into something curious and filled with wonder. He didn’t know what was going through his brother’s head, but silently, Kokichi started to make his way towards the stranger, pulling Kurochi along for the ride.

“Wha–Kii-chi, what are you…?”

Kurochi’s voice trailed off, but it was enough to finally catch his brother’s attention. Kokichi blinked, and turned towards him with a smile.

“What? You don’t wanna say ‘hi’?” Kokichi teased, making Kurochi frown. “We might as well meet _someone_ else, you know. Might be better to get some others in on the search. He looks pretty trustworthy. Strong, too! I bet if there wasn’t a glass dome on top of the wall, he’d be able to throw us right over!”

“Trustworthy…? Really?” Kurochi’s frown deepened, and he felt a little confused and a lot more skeptical. He turned towards the other student again, who was still too far away to really have noticed them.

“Yeah! I got a real good feeling about that guy!” Kokichi chirped. Without hesitation, Kokichi started pulling Kurochi along towards the stranger once again. “Let’s go talk to him!”

Kurochi didn’t get much of an input before Kokichi started dragging him along once again, but with how sure his brother was about this other student, his heart felt a little more at ease. Kokichi always had a keen eye and was a good judge of character, even before meeting someone. He didn’t always know _how_ Kokichi made his assumptions, but Kurochi had faith in them.

It hadn’t steered them wrong yet.

Though a soft smile appeared on his face at first, it faded as they drew closer. While Kokichi’s confidence was reassuring, the other student was far bigger and far, _far_ more intimidating up close. Especially with his red eyes forming a sharp and threatening glare.

Kurochi swallowed a lump in his throat, but Kokichi waltzed right up to him, grinning as he usually did. “Heeey there, big guy!”

The student turned towards them, blinking once, almost looking a little startled or surprised. “... Hm? Oh…!” Suddenly, his face warped, from intimidating to warm and excited, before he exclaimed; “Thank you very much!”

“... Ha?” There were very few times where Kurochi had seen Kokichi taken aback or thrown off guard, but the honest confusion and surprise on his face quickly warped back into his regular smile. “Well, not that I don’t _like_ being thanked for no reason, buuut, how can I say ‘you’re welcome!’ if I don’t even know what I’m being thanked for?”

“Oh! Sorry!” the other bowed his head apologetically. Though, when he looked at Kurochi, he winced. “Ah! Sorry, am I scaring you?”

Kurochi blinked, though he noticed how tense his shoulders felt. Upon forcing them to relax, he slowly shook his head. “Uh… n-no. You’re not scaring me.”

“Oh! Good!” Relief showed in his features, and the other student smiled wide. It was such an innocent smile, one that made him seem far more approachable. “People are often frightened of me, ever since I was a child… So, they do not want to speak to me when meeting me for the first time,” he elaborated, as if it was just a simple fact, though it sounded a little sad. “So that is why I said ‘thank you!’ I am thankful that you wanted to speak to me, and gentlemen should always be polite and thank others for their generosity!”

“Is that so?” Kokichi tilted his head with a soft hum. “Well, you don’t look scary to me! Hmm, you look liiike…” Kokichi tugged his hand away from Kurochi to tuck both of his hands behind his head, grinning widely. “A giant teddy bear!”

“A-a teddy bear?” The compliment flustered the other, and he shifted his weight where he stood. “Ah, I–no one has ever said I look like a teddy bear before… Do I really look like one? Oh!” Suddenly, he looked nervous. “Is that a bad thing?!”

This time, Kurochi smiled, and though he was still a bit anxious, he replied; “No… I think that’s Kii-chi’s way of saying you look soft and huggable.”

Immediately, Kokichi turned to Kurochi with a scowl. “Hey, who said you could translate my cryptic nonsense to a total stranger?”

“Well…” Kurochi was the one grinning now. “I _am_ the number-one ‘Kii-chi-to-normal person’ translator.” He started snickering. “It wasn’t like you were being subtle, anyway…”

“Hey! _Rude!”_ Kokichi huffed, before pointing a finger at Kurochi accusingly. “You might be second in command, but you’re still my underling! All of my minions must obey my every order without complaint or fail, otherwise I’ll punish you!”

“W-wait! Please do not fight!” the other student interrupted, raising his voice to the point where it made Kurochi and Kokichi both wince. “I’m sorry! I did not mean to cause trouble!”

“Huh?” Kokichi was the one to utter it first, though soon, he laughed and shook his head. “We’re not _actually_ fighting! Geez, can’t you see? I’m training up Rochi here to be a good and proper second in command! He’s kinda a big softie, you know? Gotta toughen him up a bit more before he’s _really_ ready to take on the position of power!”

Kurochi rolled his eyes, though a smile still tugged on the corners of his lips. “Kii-chiiiii, when will I finally be out of your cruel training?”

Without a beat, Kokichi retorted; “When you stop plotting to overthrow me when I give you the position!”

“Oh darn, foiled again…”

“Um…” The distress of their companion pulled both Kurochi and Kokichi out of their banter, and they both turned towards him. He looked confused, but mostly concerned. “Are… are you really not fighting…?”

“Nope! Me and Rochi never have any _real_ fights,” Kokichi chirped before snickering. “We’re just having one of our daily mandatory sibling squabbles, it’s totally normal!” Though not a beat later, Kokichi was grinning wider with his hands back behind his head. “Except that’s a lie! Rochi is soooo mean to me! Please, you gotta save me from my big evil twin brother, he’s sooo mean I can’t even handle it anymore!”

“Kiii-chiii,” Kurochi whined. He then promptly wrapped his arms around Kokichi, leaning against him. “ _You’re_ the one that’s mean! You still haven't even said sorry for before!”

“Ack! Rochi, off! Get oooff!” Kokichi tried to shove Kurochi off of him, but it was a half-hearted attempt that only resulted in Kurochi leaning more against him. “You’re being sooo embarrassing in front of–actually, wait, hold that thought,” Kokichi turned to the stranger, tilting his head. “Your name… You never introduced yourself, huh? I think the Monopads said your name was Gonta, right?”

Gonta? Kurochi stood up a little straighter, no longer leaning against Kokichi but still having his arms wrapped around him. Something about that name made him feel… safer, somehow. A little more at ease with the stranger in front of them.

“Oh, yes! I am Gonta Gokuhara!” Gonta exclaimed happily. “I’m the Ultimate Ento–”

“Entomologist, right? The Monopads also said that.” Kokichi interrupted, and Kurochi could see why. With how his brother had, apparently, learned everyone’s name and talent already just from a glance over from the monopad’s profiles, he could imagine the introductions were a bit redundant. Kurochi couldn’t help to be impressed with his brother–already learning the names and talents of everyone, even though he had barely looked over the profiles.

Though, Kokichi clicked his tongue, and asked; “What _is_ entomology, anyway? That’s what I’m assuming you study right? It’s some kind of science profession, if I had to guess…”

Gonta seemed more confused. “Um… you do not know?”

“No? I mean, I feel like I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never really looked into it.” Kokichi turned to Kurochi. “You don’t know what it is either, right, Rochi?”

“Hm… it does feel familiar, but no. I don’t.” Kurochi finally released his brother from his hug, and looked at Gonta, expecting an answer.

Though before he could, Kokichi blurted out; “Though, you have an insect cage there,” he said, pointing to the green cage that Gonta had secured around his shoulder with a matching green strap. “So let me guess: bugs. You study insects.”

Kurochi blinked as he followed his brother’s index finger to the insect cage. He was surprised that he himself didn’t immediately notice it, but it seemed almost obvious now that Kokichi pointed it out.

“Yes! That is what an entomologist is; a person who studies or is an expert in the branch of zoology concerned with insects.” Gonta seemed even more pleased and excited by Kokichi’s correct guess. “I study insects!”

“... _Fascinating,”_ Kokichi replied, but he didn’t sound all too genuine about it. It was a subtle difference, but Kurochi could almost always tell when Kokichi was lying about being interested for the sake of others versus a genuine interest in the subject. “So, how’d you get into something like entomology? It’s not every day you meet an entomologist, after all!”

“Well,” Gonta started, though the cheer in his expression faded into something stern. He crossed his arms, contemplative. “When I was little… other kids were too afraid of me to play with me. I was a lot bigger than them. So I ended up playing alone quite often.”

Kurochi gave a sympathetic frown. “That must’ve been lonely…”

“Oh, but it was fine!” Gonta insisted, trying to force a bit of cheer into his face. Though it was so obviously forced, Kurochi would have to be blind to believe it. “That is how I came to like bugs!”

“Hmm… harmless misunderstood kid, harmless misunderstood insects…” Kokichi muttered. “I can’t see the connection at all, nope.”

Gonta frowned once again. “Um…?”

“Oh, don’t mind me, just talking to myself!” Kokichi deflected. “But anyway, so you were just into bugs since you were little?”

“Well, yes!” The deflection worked, and Gonta was right back onto his story. He looked like he was concentrating, brows furrowed and lost in thought. “Though… When I was little, I used to get so focused on playing with bugs and watching them, that I lost track of where I was going, and ended up getting lost in the forest…”

“Lost in the forest?” Kurochi repeated, frowning. “Were you lost for a long time?”

“No, not really!” Gonta beamed. “It only took seven years for them to find me!”

“Seven _years?”_ Kokichi’s expression was stone cold, only his brows furrowing. Though the disbelief in his voice was clear. “It took them _that long_ to find you? Your parents, I mean…”

“They were trying very hard to find me!” Gonta insisted. It almost surprised Kurochi, for some reason, how Gonta picked up on Kokichi’s darker tone. “I was just… very deep in the forest, and it was difficult to look through. They were so happy when they found me! My mother and father both cried and hugged me for a really long time when they did.”

“Still… it took seven years…” Kokichi mused, though he rolled his shoulders and relaxed. “I guess if they were looking for you that entire time… Must’ve just been a case of rotten luck on their part that they couldn’t find you faster.”

“Seven years… That’s a really long time to be lost in the woods,” Kurochi breathed. “You must’ve been really scared, that whole time…”

“Oh no, it wasn’t that scary! My new family found me and took care of me the whole time!” Gonta elaborated. “They made sure I was safe and fed until I was found again.”

“New family? Wait, so there were some people in the forest that found you, and didn’t take you immediately back home?” Kokichi frowned. “Why didn’t they take you back home?”

“Oh, well, um,” Gonta seemed a little embarrassed, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. “They… were not people. They were wolves.”

Kurochi nearly choked on his own breath. “You were raised by _wolves?!”_

“... Well, that answers all of my questions then!” Kokichi snickered. “Wow, raised by wolves! That’s amazing, in its own way!”

Gonta shifted his weight, starting to fiddle with the strap over his shoulder as his cheeks turned a little red. “R-really?”

“Yeah, totally awesome!” Kokichi declared. “I bet those wolves loved you lots, so they took extra special care of you!”

Gonta seemed pleased by the praise. “They did, yes! And because of my forest family, I was able to learn how to speak to animals and insects! As thanks, I want to show them how much of a great gentleman I am!”

Kurochi blinked, and resisted the urge to question why being a gentleman would serve as thanks to a pack of wolves. It wouldn’t really matter, anyway–a wolf was an animal, they wouldn’t really understand the concept. If it made Gonta happy, though, then that was all that really mattered.

“Oh, um…! Before I forget, I wanted to ask you two something–Kokichi, and Kurochi, correct?” Gonta gripped onto the strap holding his insect cage again, looking a little unsure. “That is... What the Monopads said, right?”

Kokichi started grinning yet again. “Yep! Those are our names, don’t wear them out!”

“Huh? Wear them out…?”

To Gonta’s confusion, Kurochi smiled with a soft huff. “Don’t mind him. Kii-chi’s just being silly.”

“Silly…? Oh, like, playing?” Gonta returned Kokichi grin with his own happy smile. “Thank you! Thank you for playing with me!”

“Geez, are you gonna keep thanking me for random stuff like that?” Kokichi pouted, though Kurochi didn’t miss that subtle, embarrassed blush that dusted his brother’s cheeks. “Anyway, didn’t you wanna ask us something? Or were you just confirming our names?”

“Oh, no! I did want to ask you something!” Gonta’s expression fell. “Have… either one of you seen any bugs anywhere?”

“Oh, tons of them!” Kokichi remarked, without skipping a beat. “I saw a huuuuge bug crawling on Rochi’s shoulder like, five minutes ago!”

Just at the imagery, Kurochi felt a shiver crawl up his spine. Even if he knew Kokichi was lying, the very idea of a giant bug being on his shoulder was a disturbing image.

“Wha–was there a bug on his shoulder?! For real?!” Gonta took a step towards Kurochi. “Let me see if it’s still there!”

Kurochi yelped, and when he did, Kokichi was immediately in between him and Gonta. “Whoa–hey there big guy, I was just kidding. No, we haven’t seen any bugs.”

“Oh… That is… hmm.” Instead of being disappointed like Kurochi expected him to be, Gonta looked more confused and concerned. “That is… very strange. Then, that means there really are no bugs here.”

“No bugs? None at all?” Kurochi repeated, bringing a hand up to tap his index finger against his cheek. “No animals makes sense, but for there to be no bugs sounds… weird.”

Kokichi tilted his head. “Yeah, that’s… actually _really_ weird. Not even ants? Or butterflies?” Kokichi immediately crouched down, and started combing through the grass and dirt with his fingers. “... Yeah, there’s definitely no signs of bugs here. That’s suuuper weird, don’t you think? There aren’t even bits of grass that show any signs of insects eating it.”

“Yes, and the trees also do not show any signs of bugs either!” Gonta clarified. “All of the leaves were perfectly fine.”

“That… is really, really strange.” Kurochi thought long and hard about it, but nothing he thought of could explain why there wouldn’t be even a hint of insects living in the landscape. “You’d think that there would be at least _some_ bugs around here…”

“Yes, exactly!” Gonta started balling his fists, very clearly distraught and upset. “There has to be some bugs, _somewhere,_ right? That is why I am looking for them.”

“Well, maybe if you find one, you should ask it where the exit is,” Kokichi said, half joking, if Kurochi had to guess. “‘Cause otherwise, it’s not only gonna be those bugs locked up in a cage for the rest of their lives!”

The rest of their lives…?

Something about the assertion made Kurochi nauseous, and his head started spinning. What if Kokichi was right? What if they were going to be trapped in this prison of a school for the rest of their lives?

A morbid thought hit him–that the ‘rest of their lives’ might very well be ‘only a few more days.’

Thankfully, Gonta nodded, and broke Kurochi out of his dark mindset. “Yes, of course! I have also been looking for an exit. I haven’t found anything yet, though…”

“Well…” Kokichi turned his head, and looked over to the building in the distance, the one all the way at the back of the campus. “Me and Rochi were so focused on the perimeter of the wall, we toootally forgot to stop by in there and check to see if there was anything. If you’re heading over there, mind giving it a look over for us?”

Gonta’s expression shifted, one to something equally intimidating and filled with determination. “Oh! Absolutely! Leave it to me!”

Kokichi gave Gonta a thumbs up. “Then I’ll let you get right to it!”

With that said, Gonta gave them one last nod, and he turned to leave. However, before he so much as took a step, Kokichi called out; “Oh yeah! Gonta, quick question.”

“Hmm?”

“You said that you were lost in the forest for seven years and raised by wolves, right?” Kokichi pressed the tip of his index finger to his lips, and tilted his head. “So you were out of school that whole time, right?”

Gonta blinked, and then nodded. “Yes… why?”

“Well, I was wondering… How’d you catch up with school? Seven years is a loooot to miss out on…”

“Oh! I studied!” Gonta exclaimed, his lips curling into an almost proud smile. “I studied for three years, and then I was able to go back to school again! And then, I received my Ultimate title! Oh, did you want me to tell you about that?”

“No, no! Well, I mean, I _do_ want you to tell me, buuuut…” Kokichi looked at the glass dome, and frowned. “Maybe later, okay? We reeeeally should try to get out of here, you know?”

“Oh, right! Yes, of course! I will go check that building for you, okay?”

At Gonta’s declaration, Kokichi nodded and smiled. “Yeah, thanks. We’ll let you know if we find anything ourselves, okay?”

“Okay! Take care–and do let me know if you find any bugs!”

As Gonta turned to leave, Kokichi waved a hand. “Will dooo!”

Kurochi hadn’t meant to go quiet towards the end of their encounter with Gonta, but it was much easier to let his brother do all of the talking and just to observe. It was fine enough; he wouldn’t really know what to say anyway.

Then, Kokichi whistled.

“Seven years of no formal education, and learning it all in _less_ than half the time…” Kokichi turned to Kurochi, closing his eyes and grinning widely. “I think we just met a literal genius.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rye: Gonta time! Yes, we basically dedicated an entire chapter to introducing him, what of it?
> 
> This chapter was more for establishment than for plot, but it'll have some pay offs later on. As you can see, we chose to have Gonta not speak like a cave man, purely out of personal preference.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the bug boy!


	5. Prologue, Chapter 5: Preluding Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After meeting Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist, the twins decide to continue their search for an exit.
> 
> ... But in reality, there never was one.

They searched around the school and the courtyard for quite some time. Finding the garden, going back inside, exploring the school to the best of their abilities–and yet, nothing turned up. Nothing but a few unfamiliar faces and a few quick, short greetings. They even met a real life robot, named ‘K1-B0’... to which Kokichi decided to promptly harass for the next half an hour. A little waste of time, but Kurochi was thankful for the bit of relief from the stress of their situation.

Kokichi’s antics always had him smiling.

“–Okay, but _seriously,_ do robots have dicks or what?” Apparently, Kokichi was still stuck on a _certain_ aspect of that encounter, though he was snickering. “He never answered my question! Geez, you meet a robot in real life, and he gets sooo offended when you ask him absolutely very important, need to know robot basics. Tooooootally rude, right?”

Kurochi snickered as well. “Kii-chi, you’re ridiculous.”

“But it’s a _totally_ legitimate and _extremely important_ question!” Kokichi whined. “What if robots _do_ have dicks? Does that mean they can hook up with another robot–or even a human–and have babies? We could be seeing the start of our decline as the dominant species on earth, you know!”

“I don’t think that’s how it works.”

That only made Kokichi pout. “I bet you that when the first airplane was being made, everyone thought, ‘that’s not how this works, humans can’t fly!’ and now look! We live in a society where we can’t even _function_ without airplanes!” Kokichi threw his arms up in the air, making an exaggerated annoyed expression. “Ugh! I’m just trying to cover all my bases, you know!”

“Sure, Kokichi…”

While their banter was always a welcome and wanted addition to any situation, the nagging feeling of dread settled further into Kurochi’s gut. His smile became a little more forced, and even though he did his best to hide it, all it took was one look from Kokichi to stop him dead in his tracks and frown.

Though Kokichi looked like he wanted to say something, probably words of reassurance or to comfort him like he always did, he only turned away. “Anyway, when we get out of here… we can worry about robots later.”

When Kokichi’s grip on his hand tightened, Kurochi squeezed back. He felt a little guilty, being unable to wholeheartedly believe in Kokichi’s words. Something nagged at him, something felt wrong, and something in the back of his mind kept telling him that they weren’t going to escape their prison anytime soon.

Though thankfully, before his thoughts grew too morbid and dark, there was a distraction. Another pair wandering the halls, a girl with blond hair and a boy with dark hair and a hat. They looked like they were exploring the school together, trying to find a way to escape.

When Kurochi glanced at his brother, he saw Kokichi’s eyes had fixated on them both–the boy especially. He seemed quite captivated with them, watching from a distance, before they finally noticed them.

“Oh! Hey!” The girl was the first to call out, drawing the boy’s attention towards the twins. She immediately moved towards them. Kurochi felt Kokichi’s grip on his hand tighten just a bit, before he relaxed. “I was wondering when we’d run into you two! Kokichi and Kurochi, right?”

“Yup!” Kokichi grinned, pulling his hands away to tuck them behind his head. “I’m Kurochi! It’s nice to meet you!”

“Wh-wha…? But the profiles...” The false introduction seemed to throw her off, and her eyes flickered between the twins before she pulled out her Monopad. Kurochi tried to keep a straight face, willing to play along with Kokichi’s trickery, but he found himself unable to control his giggles as she looked through the profiles to verify.

“... I think he’s just messing with us,” The boy muttered, head bowed. His voice was so soft that Kurochi felt like he could probably be toppled over with a good breeze, and he would apologize for being in the way.

“Huh? No way!” Kokichi protested. “I’m totally Kurochi! Why would you think that? How cruel can you be?” Kokichi started sniffling. “I can’t believe it, they think I’m lying. We just met, and they think so little of me! Waaaah!”

“... Your brother is laughing,” the other boy pointed out, which only made Kurochi snicker more. Kurochi turned away, trying to hide it, but it was no use. “That’s why I think you’re lying. Maybe.”

“Yeah, and the profiles say you’re the one who’s Kokichi! You’re the one with the cape.” The girl huffed, and after putting her Monopad away, she crossed her arms with a pout. “Now is not the time to be kidding around! We have to find an exit!”

“Aw man, they caught us. Rochiiii!” Kokichi whined loudly, leaning against Kurochi. “You ruined our introduction prank! How could you do this to me? I feel so betrayed!”

Kurochi smiled sheepishly, and bowed his head slightly. “Sorry, Kii-chi…”

“Well, anyway…” the girl continued, ignoring their banter. “Did you two find anything suspicious? Anything that looked like it might be a way out?”

Kokichi moved off of Kurochi, and grinned as he tucked his hands behind his head again. “Nope! Unless you count a totally-awesome and not-at-all-boring robot as being suspicious!”

Kurochi frowned. Though Kokichi was saying things that weren’t technically cruel, he knew a playful lie when he saw one. While it was suspicious that there was a sixth walking, talking robot with a strong A.I., Kurochi doubted that K1-B0 was malicious in nature. “Kokichi, that’s kind of mean…”

“Is it mean?” Kokichi hummed, letting his hands drop to his sides. He tilted his head with a huff. “I didn’t think that was all that mean…”

“You know, for someone with the ‘Ultimate Supreme Leader’ talent, you’re kind of bad at people,” the girl mused. Though, despite her previous scolding, she had a smile on her face–a playful one, if Kurochi had ever seen one.

Apparently, Kokichi took that as a challenge. He gasped, exaggerating an offended expression, before he pouted. “Ohhh, someone’s been doing their homework! A gold star for Kaede Akamatsu, the grand pianist!”

“So you _have_ read the profiles…” the other boy murmured under his breath. He kept his head bowed, and his voice was so quiet that Kurochi barely heard him.

“The boy detective has some sass!” Kokichi exclaimed, before tears started forming in his eyes. Absolutely fake, of course. All for the dramatic effect. “I didn’t think you’d be so mean, Shuichiiii! Waaah!”

“Wha–wait, I wasn’t–” Shuichi seemed to be at a loss, flustered and frantic. Though after a moment of his apparent panic, his face twisted into one of slight annoyance. “... You’re faking it, aren’t you?”

Immediately dropping the act, Kokichi started grinning. “Man, you’re good! Only took you a whole two seconds to figure me out! I guess you’re an ultimate for a reason!”

Though it was meant to be praise, Shuichi only shifted his weight, bowing his head again and not looking anyone in the eye. His hat easily hid his eyes from their line of sight well, and him fidgeting with the rim of it wasn’t helping.

After looking Shuichi over for a moment, Kokichi hummed and turned his attention back to Kaede. “So, anyway, guessing you two didn’t find an exit?”

Kaede practically deflated at the question. “No… We couldn’t find anything. I guess it was the same for you two?”

“Yeah… we didn’t find anything, either…” With the mood darkening as their situation arose once more, Kurochi found that playful cheer gone in an instant. “We looked all around the perimeter of the wall outside, but there wasn’t anything.”

“There was one place we forgot to check, though. There was some building in the back, not sure what it was exactly. We had another guy named Gonta go check it out for us, but we haven’t seen him since.” While Kokichi wasn’t frowning, he was no longer smiling, either. Just a cold, neutral expression that was unreadable. “Maybe there’s some kind of exit there.”

“That does sound possible,” Shuichi mused, bringing his curled hand to his chin. Lost in thought, Kurochi could practically see the gears of his head working. “That, or… there must be some hidden entrance for this school somewhere. It is possible that we can’t get to it, though.”

“Hmm?” Kokichi tilted his head. “Why’s that? Is there something on the map that looks weird?”

Shuichi glanced away. “Ah… Not that I can think of. It was just something I was considering. There are quite a few places we can’t get to yet.”

Kurochi hummed. “Like the other floors, right? There’s got to be way more than two floors, at least.”

“Precisely… So who knows what else we don’t currently have access to.”

Kaede nodded in agreement before she clapped her hands together. “Right! We’ll find the way out, no matter what! Maybe we should look for the others, get everyone on the same page, and we can start trying to get to these other areas.”

“Nee-heehee, you sound like a corny anime protagonist!” Kokichi chirped, and his remark only made Kurochi giggle.

“H-hey!” Kaede protested, though she only whined and took a step back, her face a little flushed from her apparent embarrassment. “I’m just saying, we should work together, right?”

“Well, maybe!” Kokichi shrugged, not dropping that cheery facade for even a second. “Maybe one of us is a dirty traitor who wants to hurt us!”

The thought made Kurochi shudder. “Kii-chi, please don’t say things like that…”

“Yeah! There’s no way any of the others are like that!” Kaede pouted. “You really need to stop joking around like that! Don’t you realize what kind of trouble we’re all in?”

“Of course I do! That’s what makes it so exciting, don’t you think?”

Frowning deeply, Kurochi gently nudged his brother’s shoulder, muttering ‘stop it,’ under his breath. Then he turned to Kaede and Shuichi, and sighed. “He’s lying. He’s actually really scared right now…”

“Excuse me!” Kokichi was the one protesting now, his eyes narrowing. “I’ll have you know that I am _not_ scared! This is absolutely, totally exciting!”

Kurochi pointed to his brother’s hands. “Your hands are shaking.”

Like the cat that ate the canary, Kokichi tucked his hands behind his head, surely to hide them. He was still grinning, but his grin was strained. “No they’re not!”

“Huh?” Kaede seemed perplexed by their banter, though after a while, she started smiling warmly. “Oh, I think I get it… That’s how you try to be brave, isn’t it?”

Kokichi practically choked on his own breath, and Kurochi could notice a slight dusting of pink on his cheeks. “No way! Rochi’s just pulling your leg, that’s all. Maybe he’s projecting a bit!”

“Aw, that’s kind of cute…” Kaede cooed. She wasn’t buying it for a second. “I guess I misjudged you.”

“Gah! Rochi, look what you’ve done now!” Kokichi whined, slouching over. “My reputation, it’s ruined…”

Kurochi only smiled, and patted his brother on the back. “Sorry, Kii-chi…”

“A… anyway,” Shuichi started, though he looked just as confused and lost as he did concerned. “Kaede’s right. We should probably try to find the others, and make some sort of plan of attack. Maybe someone else has seen something suspicious by now…”

“Well, that might be kind of hard,” Kaede admitted. “We haven’t seen everyone around the school yet. Everyone’s constantly on the move. Though, we did meet… a few of them.”

With the way Kaede’s face twisted, Kurochi could guess that they ran into a few unfriendly faces.

Though, before he could think to ask more about it, there was a resounding chime echoing in the hallways. It made all four of them jump, and they all looked around for the source. When their eyes found it, however, they found themselves staring at one of the sets of floating monitors that were scattered across the school.

The monitor jumped to life, and a shiver went down Kurochi’s spine.

On it, were those five ominous little teddy bears sitting on a couch. All five of them had different drinks in their hand, and the whole scene was gaudy and unpleasant to look at. What Kurochi found most morbid, however, where the several little dolls strung up by their limbs and necks. All of them looked like the other students from the profiles on the Monopad.

Instinctively, Kurochi raised a hand to his throat when he saw his own and Kokichi’s being hung together by their necks.

“Hiiii! Thanks for bear-ing with us!” The Monokubs cheered, in sync, in unison as always. The chorus of their voices was something Kurochi hoped he’d never have to get used to.

Monokid was the first to speak on his own–and something about the tone of his voice made Kurochi think that if he could, he’d be making a terrifying expression. “Kept you bastards waiting, huh?!”

Monosuke rolled his eyes. “Yeah? No shit they’ve been waitin’. What else you think they doin’?”

“Well, you know what they say! Kids their age, the only things the boys ever think about!” Monokid laughed. “I bet they’re thinking of doing eachoth–”

Monophanie shrieked. “That’s enough!”

“Anyways!” Monotaro chimed in. He looked quite proud of himself. “Everyone, please make your way to the gym!”

Despite shrieking just moments before, Monophanie clapped her paws together. “The opening ceremony is about to begin!”

“And everythin’s ready to go for all of youse,” Monosuke huffed. He was slouched over more so than the rest, and kicked his legs back and forth. “At least it wasn’t as backwards as before…”

And then once again, in a chorus, they all sang together; “So long! Bear-well!”

The monitors went black, and the silence that followed such an ominous message felt all the more suffocating.

Opening ceremony? In the gym?

“Wooow, that doesn’t sound super sketchy or anything!” Kokichi was laughing, but only a true idiot wouldn’t get that he was being sarcastic. “So anyway, we should probably just ignore those stupid plushies, and–”

“What are you saying?!” Kaede interrupted. “We have to go!”

Kurochi felt his chest tighten. It was a struggle just to breathe. “We… have to?”

“Of course we have to! Everyone else is going to go, right?” Kaede nodded to herself. “If everyone else is going to go, then we need to go too.”

“Hmm, fair point.” Kokichi grinned again, but it was obviously strained. “Welp! I guess we’ve got to march along, huh? Can’t be the only ones missing out!”

“Ah, but…” Kurochi wanted to protest, but he suddenly felt small. He swallowed a hard lump in his throat, and whispered to Kokichi; “Are you sure this is a good idea…?”

“Nope, not in the slightest,” he whispered back, blunt as ever. It didn’t help settle Kurochi’s nerves any. “But she has a point. As long as even one person goes, we all have to. We all need to be on the same page, right?”

While Kurochi didn’t like it, Kokichi was making a lot of sense. It would be dangerous _not_ to go, less another classmate is to learn something important where no one else had. Something told him that keeping information from one another would lead to disaster.

“So… we’re going, right?” Shuichi asked, looking to Kaede for reassurance. “I’m not sure what will be waiting for us there… but I have a bad feeling about it.”

“Still, we’ll get through this!” Kaede smiled, and there was a hint of determination in her eyes. “Whatever is going on, we’ll all work together and get through this, no matter what!”

“Yeah! Teamwork!” Kokichi cheered. Him shouting in agreement made Kaede laugh, but it was quite obviously dripping with nervousness. Still, Kokichi continued; “That’s my specialty! You can leave it to me!”

“Your… specialty?” Shuichi frowned. “You don’t seem like… the type of person who likes working with a team...”

“Wow! I’m so offended!” Kokichi cried. Immediately, the crocodile tears were back, and he whimpered. “I thought you read my profile! You should know better than that!”

“A-ah… your… profile?”

“He’s the Ultimate Supreme Leader, remember?” Kurochi clarified with a pout. He pointed at Shuichi accusingly. “His talent is all about leadership! Of course he’s good with teamwork. Kii-chi could probably lead you all without you guys ever realizing it! That’s why he’s an ultimate!”

Where Shuichi shrunk under the pressure, bowing his head and avoiding Kurochi’s gaze, Kaede huffed. “Well, could’ve fooled me. That sounds kind of fake, anyway. How can anyone ‘lead’ people without them realizing it?” She crossed her arms and puffed out her cheeks. “You’re just making that up!”

“I c-can’t believe my talent’s been called into question already,” Kokichi whimpered. Kurochi had to wonder if any of his crocodile tears were even the slightest bit genuine. “What did I ever do to you guys? We just met, and you’re already d-discrediting me! Waaaah!” Kokichi started wailing. “You’re soooo mean! _Waaaaah!”_

“U-um…” Shuichi cleared his throat. “Maybe we should… just get to the gym. I’m sure everyone’s waiting there…”

“Okaaay!” Perking right back up, Kokichi’s tears dried as quickly as they came, and he started grinning again. “I’m sure everyone’s waiting for us! Gee, you two are really slowing us down!”

Kaede threw her arms to her side with a loud huff. “Hey, don’t blame us! _You’re_ the one wasting time!”

“I’ll race you!” Kokichi chirped, and not giving Kaede even a moment to consider it, he made a break for it. “You snooze, you lose!”

“ _Hey!”_ Kaede took the bait, and despite herself, she started sprinting after him. “You…! Come back here!”

Kurochi was only giggling as Kaede and Kokichi disappeared down the halls, before he turned his attention back to Shuichi. The other was looking down the hall, before his golden eyes fell onto him. “Ah… Does–does he do that a lot…?”

Kurochi only smiled sheepishly. “Kii-chi likes being chased. It’s one of his favorite games to play.”

“Ah… I see…” Kurochi wasn’t sure what kind of expression Shuichi was making at that revelation. It was something in between fascination and concern. Though after a moment, Shuichi cleared his throat. “Ah, um… We should… probably follow them.”

Kurochi nodded. Though at the reminder of their destination, his smile faded. He shifted his weight as anxiety started pooling in his stomach. He didn’t like that he was separated from his brother now, and with a total stranger at that… he felt antsy to get moving. “Yeah, you’re right.”

Without another word, they set off towards the gym. Shuichi was quiet, muttering to himself if anything. Kurochi wondered if he was trying to put together some of the puzzle pieces of their situation. Kokichi did say he was the Ultimate Detective, after all…

Lost in thought, it took them little time to reach the gym, and Kokichi and Kaede were standing in front of the door. Kaede was doubled over, panting and wheezing, clearly not in enough shape to keep up with his brother.

“I wiiiin!” Kurochi heard Kokichi cry out. “Man, Kaede, I didn’t think you’d be so slow! I guess you probably have to sit around a lot, being the Ultimate Pianist and all…”

“Sh-shut up,” she wheezed. “It’s not fair…! How are you so fast? I don’t…”

Kurochi couldn’t stop himself from smiling again. Kokichi was also grinning, even laughing a little. “Me and Rochi are always being chased by the cops! So we gotta be fast! Can’t have the Ultimate Supreme Leader getting himself thrown in prison!”

After she finally caught her breath, Kaede stood up straight, and puffed out her cheeks again. “Geez, do you ever stop lying?”

“Actually, he’s not lying!” Kurochi chimed in, grinning. “We absolutely, totally get chased by the law. We’re professional criminals!”

“Ugh! Not you too!” Kaede groaned. “What is with you two, anyway? You realize no one is going to fall for your tricks, right? Would it kill you two to be a little more honest?”

“Absolutely!” Kokichi exclaimed, as cheery as ever. “I think if I ever told the truth, my brain would malfunction and I’ll die immediately!”

“Malfunction?” Kaede echoed. She tried to sound stern, but Kurochi could hear amusement in her voice. “What are you, a robot?”

“Aw man! Rochi, we’ve been found out!” Kokichi ran over to Kurochi, and pretended to hide behind him. “Quick, get out your laser canon and blast ‘em!”

Without hesitation, Kurochi pointed his index finger at Kaede, using his thumb to imitate the look of a gun. Then quickly, he grinned and cried out; "Pew, pew!"

Kaede pouted, unamused. “Ugh, seriously?”

“Um… maybe we should go inside…?” Shuichi muttered, glancing around. “I don’t see anyone else here, so we might be the last ones…”

“Well, duh! You two are slowing us waaay down!” Kokichi whined. Though, with a wide grin, he turned towards the gymnasium doors. His hands were just barely trembling. “Okaaay! Open says me!”

Any cheer that Kokichi’s antics brought him vanished the moment those doors opened, and a crowd of both familiar and unfamiliar faces turned around to greet them. Kurochi swallowed, anxiety fluttering in his chest, and his heart skipped a few beats.

He had a very, very bad feeling about this.


	6. Prologue, Chapter 6: Repeating Sentiments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After meeting a handful of other students trapped with them inside the academy, Kurochi and Kokichi Ouma find themselves in a gymnasium with fifteen other students.
> 
> ... And the cycle repeats yet again.

Kurochi hadn’t expected to see what he saw, yet at the same time, he didn’t really know what to expect. In the gymnasium were thirteen other students. Only a few he was able to recognize–Miu and Gonta for sure, and K1-B0 stuck out like a sore thumb–but the rest of them only held a vague familiarity at best.

They all turned to stare at them, all of them looking as puzzled and lost as Kurochi felt. Having so many eyes on him in such a situation made him swallow a hard, nervous lump in his throat, and he felt something in his stomach churn.

The first of the group to speak up was a girl, with silver hair and a black and white maid’s uniform. It didn’t take Kurochi long to guess what her talent was. “All seventeen of us have gathered…”

“Hmm, it’s pretty spectacular seeing all of us together–right, Kirumi?” The second voice Kurochi heard was a boy, with purple hair and a jacket and pants to match. He was looking at the silver haired girl with a large grin. “It’s not often you see so many of us in one place like this.”

There was a quiet laugh, and at first, Kurochi couldn’t tell who it came from. However, his eyes landed on a tall student, wearing a mask over his face. He didn’t look at all concerned–in fact, he was mildly amused. “Kehehe… You may not be able to be so easygoing for much longer, Kaito…” The words sent shivers up Kurochi’s spine. He shuddered, yet the other continued; “After all, we are yet to be informed of our situation…”

“In this situation, it’s no use thinking about things,” a girl with long blue hair and glasses was murmuring to herself. “So, eventually, Tsumugi stopped thinking.”

Tsumugi… something told Kurochi that she was referring to herself, in the third person.

Another girl nearby was slouched over, lightly trembling but seemingly exhausted. “Nyeeeh… What’s gonna happen to us? I bet it’ll… b-be a pain, a big pain…”

“Hmm…”

The girl looked over at the other student who hummed, a girl with long brown hair in braids, and shuddered. “What? What are you looking at? Did you say something to me? I didn’t hear you…”

“Um… Himiko!” The girl cried out. She was loud, and quite excited. It was intimidating. “You can use amazing powers, right?! ‘Cause you’re a psychic and stuff, right?”

Himiko huffed, and puffed out her cheeks. “I’m not a psychic, Tenko… I’m a mage... didn’t you hear me before?” Himiko slouched over. “Or were you not paying attention…?”

“Ah! No no no, I was absolutely paying attention! Honest!” The lie was obvious, and guilt was written all over Tenko’s expression. Though it quickly shifted, and Tenko squealed with excitement. “Still, that’s amazing! A real life mage! I definitely wanna incorporate that into Neo-Aikido!” She stepped closer, towering over Himiko with a large, happy grin. “Hey, what sorta training did you undergo to gain your awesome powers!?”

“Nyeh… I don’t wanna talk about it…” Kurochi didn’t think Himiko could slouch over any further without falling over, but she managed to anyway. “Talking about it is too tiring…”

Kurochi heard Kaede sigh, and when he looked over to her, he saw that she was resting a hand on her head. She looked drained, just from listening to them. “You’re pretty lazy, huh?”

“Pardon me…” Kurochi recognized that voice–and when he turned to the source, he saw himself staring at K1-B0, the so called ‘Ultimate Robot” he and Kokichi had ran into earlier. He still couldn’t get over the human-like face and bright blue eyes. He looked all too human, for a robot. “But… we need to be on our guard. We do not know if and when danger will strike.”

Kurochi’s whole body stiffened, and his voice cracked. The words he wanted to say weren’t coming out. He started shaking, but soon, he realized he wasn’t the only one. Kokichi looked pale, more so than usual. Kokichi’s apparent distress made Kurochi whimper. His fear spiked up, and he wasn’t able to contain it any longer. “Keebo… Please don’t say that, I’m… I’m scared,” he admitted. “I don’t know what’s going on… Where are we? Why are we here…?”

“Ugh…” Kokichi groaned, his features twisting with fear and anxiety. Kurochi couldn’t tell if he was trying to over exaggerate the discomfort or fear his expression wore, but he knew it was still genuine by the way his hand shook in his own. “I don’t want to think about it… I don’t know what to do…”

“There is no need to worry!” Another girl, the one with dark skin and bleach blonde hair, called out. Her voice was bright and cheerful, casual and collected despite their situation. It was almost terrifying. Yet, her smile didn’t reach her eyes. “God will protect us all! It will be okay.”

Suddenly, Kokichi pulled his hand away from Kurochi, his demeanor changing entirely. From scared and unsure to cheerful and happy, he gleefully replied; “Phew! That’s a relief! Then me and my brother are toootally gonna be fine! Thanks, Angie!”

Kurochi felt tears forming in the corners of his eyes. He couldn’t help it–he grabbed at Kokichi’s hand, shaking like a leaf and needing the comfort. His brother was shaking too, even if he pretended otherwise. “Kii-chi…”

“Is your brain full of weeds or somethin’?” Miu growled, gritting her teeth and scowling at them both. It made Kurochi nearly yelp with the already growing fear for his life weight heavy on his chest. Yet Miu continued, and spat; “I’ll whack ‘em outta that skull of yours! You’re scarin’ the shit out of your brother, you cock-sucker! The fuck are you even thinking?!”

The facade Kokichi held up immediately dropped, and his eyes moved from Miu to Kurochi. A soft hiccup escaped from Kurochi’s throat before he could stop it. “N-no, that’s not true… It’s not… She’s wrong...”

But he knew Kokichi didn’t believe him. He wasn’t as good of a liar, after all–and Kokichi knew him like the back of his hand. Kokichi turned away, lips curled into an uncomfortable frown, as he started to scratch his cheek with his index finger. Kurochi was barely able to hear him say “sorry” with how quietly he mumbled it.

“Don’t worry about it, just leave it to me!” Kaito exclaimed, giving them a thumbs up and winking. It didn’t comfort Kurochi any–in fact, the cliche super hero shtick only made him want to cry even more. His voice was loud and aggressive, and he was practically shouting when he declared; “If those teddy bears show themselves again, I’ll kick their asses!”

“U-um… Pardon me, but–” Gonta interrupted, and while Kurochi felt relieved to see a friendly and familiar face, the worrying expression he wore only made his chest tighten. “What is… that?”

The shortest of the group turned to Gonta, raising an eyebrow. “Hm? What’s wrong?”

“Um, Ryoma… Can you not hear that?” Gonta bit his lip, as he glanced all around the gymnasium. “Listen…”

And they did, they all did. It was a low rumble, a mechanical growl hidden in the shadows. Yet no matter where Kurochi looked, he just couldn’t see the source.

“Ah, I think I hear it,” Tsumugi cupped her ear and tilted her head ever so slightly. “It kind of sounds like an engine from a robot anime–”

Tsumugi was interrupted by a loud, mechanical roar.

Like a horrible cue for a horrible play, five giant bipedal machines fell from the sky, crashing down and making indents into the wood flooring. All around them, the whole group of students that had gathered in the gymnasium were surrounded by these machines, and each one roared at them with malicious intent. Everyone was either yelling or screaming.

“Yoo-hoo!” a chorus of familiar voices rang out. “Rise and shine, ursine!”

Everyone continued screaming and yelling, loud shrill of voices echoing off of the walls of the gymnasium. If his life wasn’t in apparent immediate danger, Kurochi might have covered his ears. Instead he wanted to scream, to run away, but he was too petrified to make any noise louder than a muffled shout.

“Everyone!” Gonta cried out, extending his arms and trying to put himself in between the machines and the rest of the class. “Please, get behind me!”

Though she was in front of everyone else, Tenko remained behind Gonta, and shouted; “Wh–what the heck are these monsters?!”

Before Kurochi even realized it, he was shoved further back, the arm of his brother in front of his chest. He didn’t say anything, but Kokichi was gritting his teeth.

“Wh… what are those things?” Kurochi wheezed, and grabbed Kokichi’s arm. “Kii-chi, we need to–”

“Fuckin’ hell, can’t you just chill for a hot second?” The blue exisal growled. “These are Exisals! They’re highly mobile, bipedal weapons! They got lotsa hometown pride, too!”

“Ugh, not again…” The yellow one complained. “No one cares about some useless backstories to minor characters, Monokid. Give it a rest, would ya?”

Shrieking, Miu stammered out; “Wh-whatever they are, kill off the uggos first, and save me for last!”

When the red Exisal turned her way, Himiko squeaked and recoiled. “Hey! W-why are you looking at me?! I’m not an ‘uggo’!”

The girl with red eyes hummed, not looking at all phased by the Exisals. “Hm, didn’t someone say they would ‘kick all their asses’ if they showed up here again?”

“W-what the hell, Maki!” Kaito shouted. "Nobody told me about these things!”

“All right, chill out…” the boy with green hair said, unusually calm and collected given the situation. For some reason or another, Kurochi was convinced that the other’s name was ‘Rantaro.’ It briefly struck him as odd, but then Kurochi shook off the feeling. He had briefly checked the profiles with his brother, and Rantaro happened to be one that stood out the most to him.

Still, there was something strange about how quickly his mind drew up a name to match the face he was staring at.

“There’s no need to panic,” Rantaro continued. “We’re probably not in any danger. If they wanted to kill us, they’d have done it by now.”

Something about the confidence in Rantaro’s voice had shaken Kurochi down right into his core. How could he be so sure? A horrible dread filled his gut as he realized that, even if Rantaro was right, there was going to be hell to have.

The feeling in his stomach dropped and worsened when Rantaro casually walked over to the Exisals, with nothing but a stern expression riddled with hints of confusion. “So… what do you want from us? You clearly want _something,_ that’s what the guns are for, right? Let me guess…”

Rantaro’s brows furrowed, and his scorn became a hardened glare. “You’re going to force us to do something, and if we don’t, we get hurt.” He leaned back, smiling like he was almost proud of himself. “Well, you have our attention. So, what do you want?”

The yellow Exisal growled. “Hurg. Well aren’t you a wiseguy? Same as ever, really. I’m real sick of all of youse, but _you’re_ a right pain in the ass!”

Rantaro was clearly not expecting that, taken aback and genuinely surprised by the remark. “... What now?”

His confusion wasn’t ever answered, however. Instead, the blue Exisal took the center stage, and roared; “I’ll start us off again! Listen up! Here’s what we want you punkasses to do…” He paused for dramatic effect, but instead of continuing, he just started laughing. “Hahhhh! My hearts’ goin’ 100 miles an hour! Gets me every time! I’m gonna say it! You ready!?”

Kurochi drew in a large breath, swallowing nervously at their captors. Yet there was a nagging feeling that the hell Rantaro had invited upon them was about to break loose.

“... It’s a killing game.”

And break loose it did.

There were a few beats of silence following that exaggerated robotic voice, all of them staring at the Exisals in shock and horror. Kurochi couldn’t even process the words, like they had been said in a foreign language he didn’t understand. Nothing could make his heart skip a beat so effortlessly.

“... What?” Kaede just simply stared at them, a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead, her expression reading the same as how he felt. Baffled, unable to process it, unable to comprehend it.

Yet at the same time, understanding it in full, and dreading the reality that came with it.

“M-M-Monodam!” The blue Exisal cried out. “You upstaged me again! How fuckin’ _dare_ you?!”

“W-wait a second,” Tenko stuttered, voice wavering. “What did you say?”

Sweating nervously, K1-B0 whispered; “I-if I heard him correctly–”

“Killing game.” The green Exisal stepped forward, as the robotic voice echoed in the gymnasium. “It’s a killing game.”

“Grrrr! God damn it, Monodam! I’m gonna crush you, I’ll fucking _destroy_ you with this Exisal! That’ll be the last time you ever steal my lines from me!”

The voice that came from the pink Exisal shrieked with distress, and cried out; “C’mon, we don’t have time to fight amongst ourselves! We have work to do!”

“Yeah!” The red one cheered in agreement. It swung its arm around threateningly, though the tone of its voice did not match the motion. “If you don’t stop fighting, I’ll crush you with this here Exisal!”

“Not this again…” The pink one whined. “If this is what it comes to, then I’ll just have to crush all four of you! That’ll teach you some manners!”

“Hey, Why are you including me in this mess again!?” The yellow Exisal complained. “I ain’t in the mood for this shit, so you better back off, or I’ll just crush you back!”

The five Exisals all turned to face each other, them squabbling more like siblings than anything, but it didn’t matter. Kokichi had caught Kurochi's attention from them with a low whisper; “While they’re distracted… maybe we can get out of here. C’mon, the others will see us and follow.”

Kurochi whimpered and swallowed, shaking and petrified. Yet he was able to whisper; “Are–are you sure?”

“Mhmm. Look,” Kokichi subtly nodded his head over at some of the other students, who were already backing away from the Exisals. “We’re not the only ones with the idea. So we gotta get out of here, before they notice–”

“Now, now, now…”

A new voice, something that made Kurochi and Kokichi both jump where they stood, had boomed over the in-fighting squabbling of the Exisals.

“What?” Kaede’s voice registered in his mind, but Kurochi might as well not have even heard her. That voice, it rang in his ears, grating and childish and yet something that made him sick to his stomach. A voice that echoed with a sort of malice that Kurochi couldn’t hear, but he _felt_ it–a sadistic, horrid malice reached into his soul and coil around him. Squeezing any semblance of hope from him, wringing him dry and casting him aside.

The sheer force of that childish yet malevolent voice made Kurochi feel faint.

“My cute little cubs…” the voice continued, the source unknown. No matter how hard Kurochi looked for it, he couldn’t find anything that may be the source. “You gotta knock off this awful fighting…”

The pink Exisal gasped, and cried out; “Oh, that voice!”

Suddenly all of the Exisals stopped their bickering and fighting, and returned to a neutral stance. Then, all at once, all of the cockpits of the Exisals flew open, and the five teddy bears from before all jumped out and onto the stage.

“Father!?” Monotaro exclaimed. “Father, is that you?!”

Monokid took out his guitar once again, and strummed it as he shouted; “Papa Kuma! Papa Kumaaaaaa!”

“Daddy!? Where are you, Daddy!?” Monophanie looked around, all over the gymnasium, but to no avail. “Daddy, where are you? Daddy!”

“... ‘Daddy?’ ‘Father?’ They have a… _father?”_ Kokichi murmured, just barely loud enough for Kurochi to hear. No one else heard him, apparently, as they were all staring at the Monokubs in shock and eyes filled with horror.

“H-huh? Daddy?” Kaede echoed, much louder than Kokichi had, and it was hard to miss her when she had cried out in shock. “What are you–”

At that moment, the lights suddenly flickered off in the gymnasium, and Kaede ended up screaming. Others followed suit, and Kurochi felt Kokichi take a step back, to the point where the arm he was using to defend Kurochi with was now touching him.

The first lights to flicker back on were spotlights, drawing all of their eyes towards the podium that they hadn’t even noticed before. The rest of the lights flashed on, but their eyes kept on the podium, as if a monster was about to jump out and hunt them down.

And then, the monster appeared before them, a teddy bear jumping and spreading its wings in the middle of the spotlight.

The Monokubs started cheering, in unison, for the beast they called a father.


	7. Prologue, Chapter 7: Final Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the Monokubs had revealed to the students that they were being forced to participate in a killing game, a demon of black and white descended from the heavens.... and when he did, a fiery rain of hell quickly followed suit.

The bear that appeared before them looked like a demented angel. Or perhaps, a sadistic devil, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It looked like it was both a harmless toy and something ready to drive its teeth into someone’s throat.

Like the other teddy bears, one half was white, while the other was black. One beady black eye on the white side, and one red eye in the shape of a lightning bolt on the other. He only had half a grin on the darker side, which Kurochi hadn’t even noticed was a trait the Monokubs had shared, with how their pacifiers covered up their more “normal” looking mouths.

The new teddy bear slowly descended from the peak of his jump, his black and white wings fluttering as he sat himself down on the top of the podium, right in front of the microphone. Then the spotlights shut off, and with it, the black and white wings broke off and fell to the ground.

Silence took over them for a brief moment, before the black and white bear snickered. Then, with a booming yet childish voice, akin to some sort of cartoon character, it spoke again; “I am the God of this new world…” The teddy bear–a he, Kurochi supposed–pressed both of his front “paws” his widened grin, and he started snickering. “... and the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!”

He stood up with a flourish, as if his entrance hadn’t been dramatic enough, and spread his arms out wide. “The one, the only… Monokuma! Nice to meetcha!”

Monokuma… the name sent violent shivers down Kurochi’s spine, and he couldn’t suppress the rather loud whimper they shook free from his throat. Movement in front of him distracted Kurochi, and he glanced at his brother, who had dared to take another step in front of him. Protecting him, putting himself in between danger and Kurochi. Kokichi released a shuddering breath, fists clenching.

It wasn’t just Kurochi who got a bad feeling from that teddy bear.

“Yaaaay! Father’s here!” Monotaro exclaimed, jumping up and down with his hands thrown up in the air. “Father, Fatheeeer!”

“Hell yeah! Another entrance from the one, the only, Papa Kumaaa!” Monokid bellowed out. “As epic as always, Papa!”

Monophanie sighed, almost swooning. She was holding a yellow petaled flower in her paws, though Kurochi had no idea where it even came from. “Daddy is sooooo cool… I wanna be just like him when I grow up!”

Monosuke and Monodam said nothing, but they both were looking at Monokuma with some sort of excitement and affection.

Monokuma started shaking, his face red. Kurochi couldn’t understand why–he was being praised by his children, but he looked borderline enraged.

“My cuuute little cubs!” Monokuma fumed. “You’re all so freakin’ cute! The only reason why I can tolerate your tiresome antics is because you’re all sooo cute! Even when the prologue is going way too long, I’ll allow it because you guys are _cute.”_

Kurochi bit his lower lip, afraid that he knew where this was going. The way Monokuma spoke of his own children, it reminded him so much of–

“In fact, the very first prologue ever was only short ‘cause you cutie-patooties weren’t there, you know!” Monokuma continued, still shaking with rage.

Apparently Monosuke saw it too, and he was sweating by the time he stammered; “P-Pops… are you mad at us again?”

“Don’t be an idiot!” Monokuma roared, making Kurochi jump. “I would never get mad at any of my cute little cubs!”

“Gah, he is mad!” Monokid shouted. “He’s real mad this time! I ain't ever seen him so mad!”

While the other Monokubs were shaking and clearly nervous, Monophanie giggled. Though even that held a nervous tint to it, and she was clearly shaking as well. “But… Daddy is still cool even when he’s angry.”

“Pops is from a planet of handsome bears that get cooler as they get angrier!” Monosuke blurted out, clearly trying to appease their father. “He’s super cool with a helluva personality too!” Monosuke started to fix his glasses, or at least pretend to. Kurochi had to assume that they were sewn on, and he was just imitating the behavior. For some reason or another, Monosuke also pulled out some money–and again, Kurochi just couldn’t tell where he got it from. “There’s Super Monokuma, Super Monokuma two, Super Monokuma three, and finally, Super Monokuma four–”

As Monosuke kept rambling on and on, however, the tips of Monokuma’s paws flexed, and sharp looking claws that shimmered like metal made Kurochi gasp. Any sense of anxiety he had over the teddy bear was horrifically confirmed, and the monster was about to strike.

And strike he did.

Not at the students, but rather, at the Monokubs themselves. A bright light came from his paws as he punched them, yelling; “How many times do I gotta say it?! I’m not _mad!”_

Suddenly, as all of the Monokubs were knocked over, Kurochi had a flash–a man with a fist, and his brother lying on the ground. Wheezing, gasping for air, with a foot ready to attack him right in his stomach–

The image alone made him feel ill, dizzy all over again from the sheer force of it. The Monokubs had said something absolutely ridiculous, but Kurochi hadn’t processed what they said at all. He only grabbed onto Kokichi’s shoulders, shaking violently.

When it was over, he wasn’t the only one who looked horrified. Every other student there was horrified, all of them with paled faces and widened eyes. What they had witnessed was nothing short of a terrible, sadistic nature–of a father beating his children with his bare hands.

A nature that Kurochi had a feeling would be inflicted upon them soon.

“Anyway,” Monokuma huffed, his voice back to the cheery tone it had before, and he pressed his paws to his face again. Snickering, he said with a gleeful voice; “I’m really not mad. In fact, I gotta admit that I’m actually proud of you guys. You kids really stand out from the rest of the second-generation failures in the world, you know?

Monophanie tilted her head with a soft hum. “Isn’t that a little harsh? I’m sure there are some second-generation success stories…”

Monosuke grumbled, pressing his own paw to his face, lost in thought. “I can’t think of any, though–”

Suddenly, the violence started up again, and Monokuma’s fist was spewing sparks of literal fire as he beat the Monokubs a second time, shouting in his boiling rage; “If you can’t think of any, it’s ‘cause there’s none worth remembering!”

Kurochi gasped and closed his eyes, his own body shaking more and more by the minute, and he covered his ears. He heard the muffled sound of the Monokubs praising Monokuma, but he couldn’t make out what they had said exactly.

He heard every strike, every exasperated punch amplified by the gymnasium and the echoes bouncing off of the walls.

Soon the violent sounds stopped again, and he heard Monokuma, flustered and panting, _giggle._ “Heehee! I love embracing my children! They’re so cute, I just can’t help myself!”

Kurochi opened his eyes, voice wanting to protest the sentiment but the words getting stuck in his throat. Voiceless, powerless, with no chance of any success on his own.

“... _Disgusting,”_ Kokichi hissed, only loud enough so Kurochi could hear him. He didn’t sound nearly as shaken as Kurochi felt, but he repeated the feelings that burned in Kurochi’s chest all the same.

“Usually, ratings will plummet when mascots appear in sequels too much,” Monokuma continued, sweating and still catching his breath. With a deep breath, however, Monokuma sighed, and started rubbing his paw against the back of his head. He looked somehow cheerful, despite the awful display of cruelty he gave. “But in this case, ratings are through the roof! All thanks to the cute Monokubs!”

“... Mascots?” Kokichi murmured, bowing his head slightly and letting his gaze fall to the floor. “Mascots, and ratings…?”

“Wh–what is this? What’s going on?” Kaede spoke loudly, shocked and horrified. Apparently, she didn’t hear Kokichi mumbling to himself, even as he was still distracted and hung up by those phrases.

“Another teddy bear appeared…” Tsumugi blurted out. She seemed out of touch with the situation, unable to truly process the absurdity of it all. “A black and white one...”

The male student with long brown hair and a mask over his face bowed his head, and tilted the rim of his hat forward. It almost made his eyes look like they were glowing, a bright yellow that not even the shadows could tame. “Yes, but that is no ordinary teddy bear. I can see it… the despair and madness swirling around in that cursed thing.”

“Whoa… First of all, I’m no teddy bear. I’m Monokuma! Get it right, Korekiyo!” Monokuma growled, bowing his head and extending his claws. It made both Kokichi and Kurochi wince. Though they all flinched when Monokuma snarled, and roared; “And show some respect! I’m the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!

Maki started glaring at him. “... Headmaster?”

“It appears to be some sort of autonomous robot with a built-in A.I.,” K1-B0 added. “... Like me.”

Monotaro cheered with delight, jumping up and down as he cried out; “Dong dong–no, wait, it’s ding!” he corrected himself. “Ding ding diiing!”

“Hey, you finally got it right for once,” Monosuke grumbled. “Anyway, I guess you could say that’s how it works, but the Exisals are different, though! They’re a brainless bucket of bolts!”

Monophanie giggled, and further elaborated; “They’re mindless pretty killing machines that can only be controlled by us, the Monokubs.”

Immediately, Kurochi felt a ringing in his ears, seething hot and sharp. It only lasted for a moment, but it still made him gasp and slightly double over, grabbing his head in his hand. Trying to cover his ears, as if that would help.

Kokichi immediately turned to him with a sharp inhale. “Rochi? Hey, you okay?”

The pain had been quick, leaving mere moments after it had just appeared. He felt nauseous, swallowing and forcing himself to lift his head. “Y-yeah… Just, all of this, it’s too much–” Kurochi’s voice was interrupted with a loud groan, and he tried to shake his head to relieve it of the foggy feeling he had. “I… I’m okay, I’ll be fine…”

Well. As fine as he could be in the situation they found themselves in.

“Autonomous robots piloting weapons platforms… This is certainly turning into quite the story.” Ryoma huffed.

“Well, that may be, but…” Rantaro started, glaring at the teddy bears with furrowed brows. “I’m more worried about this 'killing game' you mentioned. What exactly does that mean?”

“Puhu… Puhuhuhuhuuu…”

Monokuma’s giggle made Kurochi’s heart skip a beat, maybe even two. He started breathing hard, whispering; “Please, no–” under his breath in a quick succession, over and over. It was a snicker full of malicious glee, like a cat licking its lips at a feast of birds in a cage.

With a cold voice and a stern, yet alarmed expression, Kirumi asked; “What is so amusing?”

Monokuma only continued to snicker for a moment, before he sighed. “It’s just… when I said it before, I kinda just phoned it in and now I feel awkward…”

And then, suddenly, a roaring laughter filled the gymnasium, the sound burned into Kurochi’s mind forever.

“I want you students with your Ultimate-level talents to participate in a killing game!”

All of the students fell silent while Monokuma and the Monokubs laughed, laughing right in their faces as their intentions for them had been revealed. The realization that Monokuma wasn’t lying settled in quick, and it hit hard.

Kurochi felt dizzy. Kokichi’s face had paled. Everyone stared in horror as it settled in.

“K-killing game? Us?” Kaede spoke up first, and she looked like she wanted to scream. Yet her voice was quiet, unable to gain volume, broken apart by the implications of what their captors were going to do with them.

Immediately, Kokichi tensed, and his eyes started darting around. Assessing the situation, biting the inside of his cheek. His eyes fell on Kaede first, glaring at her as if she was an enemy, before K1-B0 took his attention by shouting; “Please stop joking! Why would we agree to participate in a killing game?!”

“Huh?” Monokuma tilted his head, pressing a paw to his face. Acting innocent and sweet, so much so that it felt rotten. “You guys don’t wanna do it?”

 _Do we even have a choice?_ The thought entered Kurochi’s head, and he wheezed when he knew the answer to that question.

“O-of course not!” Gonta objected. “I would never hurt anyone! I am a gentleman!”

Monokuma snickered. “But if you’ve looked around the academy, then you already know, don’t you? The academy is surrounded by a huge wall. You can’t escape to the outside world…” Monokuma bowed his head, and his left eye started flowing a menacing shade of red. “And as long as we have the Exisals, you can’t defy us. In other words…”

Monokuma raised a paw threateningly, extending out his claws. Kurochi never thought a teddy bear could look so monstrous. “I hold the power of life and death over each and every one of you.”

“So do what you say if we don’t want to die,” Rantaro stated bluntly, as if Kurochi needed his thoughts to be so viciously confirmed.

“D… die?” He felt like he was going to throw up. The word tasted like poison and Kurochi’s body wanted to be rid of it. “We–we’ll… we…”

“Y-you gotta be kidding me!” Tenko shrilled. “Why would friends kill each other?!”

_Friends kill each other...?_

Kurochi felt like his throat was about to close. His head was spinning, but it was only complimenting the panic that overwhelmed his chest. Die. Kill. Death.

They were going to die here.

“... Who said you guys were friends?” Monokuma hummed, tilting his head again. Then he snickered, and scoffed at the thought. “You guys aren’t friends at all…” His red eye started glowing brighter. “You’re enemies out to kill each other.”

A sharp pain rang in his ears, making him wince. They weren't friends…? Enemies… out to kill each other?

Was that the _truth?_

“E-enemies…?” Shuichi stammered.

Everyone started to look around the room, glancing at each other with unease. Suddenly, they were surrounded by potential threats, all of them tense at the idea that they needed to fight to survive.

“Hmm, I still have a lot to learn from Father about sarcasm.” Monotaro mused.

“Grrr! Argh, this shit is borin’ the hell out of me!” Monokid hollered. “I’m gotta beat the shit out of Monodam to relieve the stress!”

Monodam made a strange robotic sound, and stared at Monokid with widened eyes. Kurochi screwed his eyes shut in preparation for another attack, but it never came.

“But… I don’t like that,” Monophanie whined. “I’m not good with violence or gore or sad situations. Um, Daddy…” she turned to Monokuma, with an expression that was almost pleading. “Instead of a killing game, could we do a rock-paper-scissors tournament? For once?”

Kurochi inhaled sharply when he heard that, but a flicker of hope didn’t even have the time to take form in his chest.

“Who’d wanna play a game where no one dies?!” Monosuke barked. “You never come up with somethin’ better, I’m getting tired of it!”

“Now now, there’s no need for you to fight her.” Monokuma sighed, and swooned. “She’s always had a compassionate personality. It’s so cute, I can barely stand it! Why, it’s cute enough to eat!” What Kurochi thought was an actual sliver of genuine affection soured into rage, and Monokuma started growling again. “Cute enough that I want to eat it!”

Monophanie recoiled with a yelp, and shivered. Monokuma only continued to stare her down, a predator looming over a potential prey.

“Hey, Monophanie,” Monotaro interjected, before things could escalate. “You might wanna dial back the cute schtick a bit. Father doesn’t like the cliche of it, you know?”

Monophanie whimpered, and bowed her head with a curt nod. Compliant, submissive, pressing her paws to her chest. The sight almost made Kurochi feel bad for her and the other cubs. Almost.

“Cool it with the stupid banter. I want to ask something,” Ryoma demanded, his face pinched in a threatening scowl. “How are we supposed to kill each other? Are you going to give us weapons?”

Instead of skipping a beat, Kurochi’s heart flat out stopped and he gasped. Though, before he could find his own words, Kaito blurted out; “W-what?! What the hell, man?! What are you asking?!”

“We need to get info from them first. We can’t do anything if we don’t know anything,” Ryoma clarified, shoving a long piece of candy in his mouth and starting to lightly chew on the end of it. It almost reminded Kurochi of someone smoking a cigarette.

“Weapons?” Monokuma repeated. “Huh? What kind of barbaric display are you envisioning? You couldn’t be more wrong.” Monokuma started laughing again. “Why, at the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles…” Monokuma threw his paws up in the air, a mix of rage and glee shining through his voice as he yelled out; “The killing game is quite the refined, sophisticated experience!”

Though her face remained mostly neutral, Maki’s eyes were slightly widened. “... ‘Sophisticated experience?’ What does _that_ mean?”

“Yes…” Monokuma chirped. The anger in Monokuma once again faded, and he continued; “Here, the killing game is punctuated by class trials.”

With her own wavering voice, Kaede stammered; “C… Class... trials?

“Oh oh oh!” Monotaro started jumping up and down. “It’s my turn to explain it again! My turn, my tuuurn!” The way he bounced up and down was like that of a child just about to enter a giant toy store. It was almost innocent, if not for the horrid dread that came with it. “All right, so if one of you maggots kills someone, you all gotta take part in a class trial.”

“The class trial is where the blackened killer faces off against the spotless classmates.” Monosuke added, though Monotaro started screeching incoherent protests about it.

He went ignored, as Monokid continued; “It’s where you punk-ass bitches argue over who you fuckin’ think the blackened is! After that, it’s Voting Time! And if the majority of you idiots vote correctly…”

“Th-the only the blackened killer will receive pu-pu-punishment…” Monophanie stuttered. “Hurk…! So cruel… Just imagining all the blood and gore… I feel like I’ll throw up just thinking about it…”

While Monophanie turned away to gag, however she was able to, Monosuke grunted and shook his head. “You’d think she’d be used to it by now, but whatever. Anyway,” he turned to the students. “After the blackened is punished, the rest of youse’ll just keep right on livin’ together.”

“Buuut!” Impatient that his spotlight was stolen from him, Monotaro shoved Monosuke aside, and crossed his arms proudly. “If you vote for the wrong person during the class trial, the blackened gets off Scot-free, and all the spotless students get punished instead!”

“Hell yeah! Them’s the rules of the class trial!” Monokid bellowed. “Woo-hoo-hoo! Aoooowww!”

“Ahhh, too much!” Monokuma called out, interrupting the Monokubs. “That explanation revealed way too much! You gotta be more coy! Clever! Secretive! Mysterious! Just like your old man!” Himiko moved to speak, to react to Monokuma’s words, but he interrupted her before she could even open her mouth. “–The point is, it’s not enough to kill someone. You also have to survive the class trial.

“Kill without being caught, and then survive the trial…” Rantaro crossed his arms, keeping his composure. Kurochi didn’t understand how he could–he himself was shaking and only Maki looked as unfazed as him. “Sounds eerily similar to the real world.”

“You think so?” Monokuma started snickering. “Then the outside world must be masterfully designed–even at its cruelest!”

“One can likely imagine… but I shall ask, just in case,” Korekiyo said, his voice cold. But even it was wavering with a hint of fear. “What is the ‘punishment’ you mentioned earlier?”

The question had an obvious answer, and everyone knew it. Still, Monokuma started roaring with laughter, and he cheered; “Simply put, it’s an execution!”

Gonta winced, taken aback. “E-Execution?!”

Monokuma laughed even harder at his reaction, and continued to do so. It felt like forever had past Kurochi by in just a second, the situation too overwhelming. “If you do a crime, you get punished for it. That’s like, the most basic rule of society. But this is a killing game, so the punishment for murder is a bit more… _permanent.”_

“Ooooh! I wonder what punishments there’ll be?! I hope it’s a new one!” Monokid shouted. “With lots of blood and guts and brains, I bet! That kind of stuff gives me a raging boner!”

Monotaro gasped, scandalized and embarrassed by the blunt admission. “What?! Monokid, you already have a boner?!”

“Y-yeah! I’m so hard right now!”

“Blood... guts… brains…” Monophanie whimpered. She was still trembling at the mere thought. Then, out of no where, she ran off into a corner of the gym and started throwing up.

Monosuke grimaced. “Whoa! Monophanie got sick again!”

“I’m so _freaking_ hard!”

“Ew, that’s really gross…” Monotaro cringed. “Monokid, we talked about this…”

At the Monokubs’ strange form of banter, Monokuma only roared with laughter. “Ah-hahahahaha! You kids are just adorable!”

As if he was reading Kurochi’s mind, Kaito snapped; “Wh-what the hell’s _cute_ about that?!”

Ignoring him, Monokuma stopped laughing, and then he chirped; “All right, I’m over all of this boring exposition–” Suddenly he roared again, and raised his paws over his head. “Let’s get this heart-pounding killing school semester started already!” With his red eye glowing even brighter, Monokuma bowed his head, and somehow, his grin looked wider. “You have free rein to murder however you like, too. Like bludgeoning! Or stabbing! Feelin’ cheap? Try strangulation! Feelin’ lazy? Try poisoning! Whether you shoot, burn, drown, blow up, crush, electrocute, or laugh your victim to death… You can use any method you like to kill anybody you like, anyway you like!”

Monokuma threw his head back, laughing with a sadistic glee that Kurochi couldn’t even describe.

“At the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles, you will realize your murderous potential! Seventeen talented prodigies, all competing for first place in a killing game… There’s no better setting for an event like this than the Ultimate Academy!”

Kurochi wanted to protest against it, but his voice had been long gone. Dread and fear shattered his ability to speak, and he could only croak out pathetic whines and whimpers. Why was this happening to them? To _all_ of them?

Why _them?_

“Killing school semester…” Rantaro hissed. It was the first time Kurochi even heard him sound affected by their situation, and his expression was distorted in some form of anger and hatred. “So… it’s like a game.”

“Kehehe…” Though Korekiyo was laughing, he too wore a dark expression, glaring daggers at the teddy bears. “Risking our lives for some silly game is absurd.”

Kurochi choked on a sob, and his hands automatically went to grab his brother’s shoulders again. He hadn’t initially noticed that Kokichi’s lips were parted, about to speak, but his own action silenced whatever thought he had. Instead, Kokichi reached over and rested his hand on Kurochi’s, offering only the barest minimum of comfort.

“Hey! How can you degenerates be so calm?!” Tenko cried out.

With her face pale and eyes empty, Tsumugi muttered; “Th-this has to be a lie, right…? It’s a lie, right?”

If only it was. Nothing of their situation made any sense. It sounded like a plot for a video game or Television show. A lie. A lie would be a kinder solution.

Instead, it was a cruel truth. A brutal, harsh reality. Non-fiction.

As much as Kurochi wanted to disbelieve it, the despair that came with those words squeezed his chest, making it harder and harder to breathe.

“I-I don’t want… to be in a killing game,” Shuichi breathed. He looked about as faint as Kurochi felt. “It’s wrong, I… I’d never do that.”

“Puhuhu… Well, if you don’t want to participate in the killing game, that’s gonna be a problem...” Monokuma snickered behind his paws. “‘Cause the killing game is the only reason you’re here.”

“Wh-what?”

Kokichi may have said it, but the sentiment was echoed throughout the gymnasium. Soft, horrified whispers of disbelief and terror. They were trapped in a cage, with a demon toying with their lives.

“Now then, unleash your talents and have a happy, homicidal, horrific, hilarious killing game!” Monokuma cheered.

“–Wait just a minute!” Kaede retorted. Monokuma only hummed and tilted his head at her. She swallowed, and then continued; “No matter what you say… We won’t do it! We’ll never participate in a killing game!” She gritted her teeth. “Whatever you have planned, I’m not gonna let you get away with it!”

Tenko recoiled. “K-Kaede! You shouldn’t just rashly defy that thing–”

“No, no!” Monokuma interrupted. “I welcome her resistance! That kind of defiant spirit is important to the killing game! It’s fun to watch the defiant ones eventually snap, and get their hands dirty…”

Kaede swallowed. “Wh-what do you mean by that…?”

“Everyone loves that kind of brutality in a death game! Especially me! So your defiance is more than necessary! In fact, it’s the very crutch of this story!” Monokuma snickered again. “It’s so fun and entertaining that I just get un- _bear_ -ably pumped up!” Barely able to suppress his snickering into a giggle fit, Monokuma continued; “Plus, as the headmaster, it’s my job to force you to do it! Ahahahahaha!”

Then came the roaring laughter, booming and echoing off of the walls of the gymnasium. Monokuma’s laughter was the only thing Kurochi could hear before the Monokubs joined him, cheering and laughing alongside him at their victims. Loud hollering and joy, all warped by a malice so deeply rooted into their beings that showed no hope of redemption.

Those six teddy bears that laughed at them, mocking their mortality and pounding their humanity into the dirt. It was just a game to them. Machines built with cruel A.I.s that wanted nothing more than to shed blood.

The students all glared at Monokuma with some form of anger and fear, mixed and matched and contorting their expressions in the worst way possible. There was no salvation. There was no nightmare to wake up from. They were birds trapped in a cage with blood thirsty cats, just waiting for them to make a wrong move.

And that was the true beginning of the hell they were forced into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rye: Annnnd that's the end of the prologue!
> 
> What do you think? Did you guys enjoy it so far? Are you excited to see what happens next? Hueueue~
> 
> I will let you guys know, however--now that the prologue has been completed, DRV3R will go back into a production hiatus--no, ideally it will not be too long, but we do plan on releasing more content as each "chapter" is completed. Right now, we're working on every chapter all at once, so the closer to the end we get of this fic, the faster it should update. In theory.
> 
> Either way, see you guys when "Chapter 1" is done~!


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